Lindas Scottish Shortbread Food

TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 8x8 or 9x9 inch square baking pan. You can also use a round cake can and cut the shortbread into triangles.
• Place the caster sugar, flour, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until it's combined and looks like coarse breadcrumbs but is soft and pliable and comes together in a dough when you press it together between your fingers. If it's too dry and crumbly it needs to be pulsed a bit longer. (If using any add-ins, stir them in at this point.)Pour the mixture into the greased baking pan. Use your fingers and hands to firmly press down the mixture. Note: If the mixture is too dry to work with, including pricking with a fork (see below), then it was not pulsed long enough in the food processor. Optional: Prick the shortbread with the tines of a fork, creating rows. Some people also like run a knife between each row of fork tines to make cutting the shortbread easier after it's baked. You can also prick the shortbread with a fork immediately after it is done baking while it is still warm; the holes will be more pronounced this way as they have a tendency to close during baking.
• Place the shortbread on the middle rack and bake for 30-35 minutes or until light golden and firm. Let cool. Cut and serve.Store the shortbread in an airtight container for up to several weeks. Its flavor and texture improves over time.

SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place butter in mixer and beat with paddle until soft and light. Beat in sugar in a stream and continue beating 5 to 10 minutes until the mixture is very light and whitened. Stir in the flour by hand until it absorbed, no more or the dough will toughen.
• Scrape the dough onto a floured surface and flour the dough with pinches of flour. Press the dough out with your hands, then roll over once or twice very gently with a rolling pin until the dough is about 1/2-inch thick. Cut the dough with floured cutters and transfer the cut pieces to a paper lined pan.
• Bake the shortbread for about 15 minutes until it is very lightly colored. Cool the shortbread on a rack.
• To use a shortbread mold to shape, press the mold into the floured dough and cut around it. Transfer the cut and molded dough to a paper lined pan and chill about 1 hour until firm. Bake as above.

SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• You will need an 8 inch (20cm) fluted flan tin with a loose base. However, Fiona doubles the recipe and uses a rectangular tin. I do the same.
• Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C / gas mark 2).
• Beat the butter in a bowl with a wooden spoon, then beat in the sugar, the sifted flour and the semolina. Work the ingredients together with the spoon, then finish off with your hands till you have a dough that doesn't leave any bits in the bowl.
• Transfer the dough to a flat surface and roll it out lightly to a round, then transfer the round to the tin. Press the mixture evenly into the tin, right into the fluted edges (if your tin is fluted). To make sure it's even you can give it a final roll with a small glass tumbler. Prick the shortbread all over with a fork or it will rise up in the centre while it's baking. Sprinkle the dough with slivered almonds if desired and a little bit of sugar.
• Bake the shortbread for 60-75 minutes on the centre shelf, then using a palette knife mark out the surface into twelve wedges while it's still warm. Leave it to cool in the tin, then remove the rim of the tin. Cut the shortbread into wedges (or into squares if you used a rectangular tin) and store in an airtight tin.
• Strawberry shortcake:.
• Make shortbread as above in an 8 inch tin. Leave it whole. Just before serving spread it with fresh cream or fromage frais and top it with strawberries. You may want to sweet your cream or strawberries with sugar.