Scottish Shortbread Recipe Mary Berry Food

SHORTBREAD RECIPE

Steps:

• Weigh the flour, sugar and butter and pop them all in a large mixing bowl. Using your finger tips rub everything together gently until you have a fine breadcrumb.
• Knead the mixture gently to bring it all together in a ball of dough. We had to do this for a while to stop the mixture crumbling apart when we tried to roll it out.
• Lightly sprinkle some flour down on your work surface
• Roll your dough out until it is around 5mm (1/4 inch) thick. Using a 5cm fluted cutter, cut circles out and place them on your baking tray.
• Prick each biscuit with a fork and sprinkle them with a little Demerara sugar.
• Pop the baking trays in the oven for 15-20 minutes. They're ready when they are starting to turn golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

MARY'S PERFECT SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3.
• Sift the cornflour and flour into a bowl. Rub the butter into the mixture with your fingertips until it resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar. Knead gently until it forms a smooth dough. Shape into a round flat disk.
• Place onto a sheet of baking parchment. Using a rolling pin, roll it out to a disc which is 7 inches in diameter. (18 cm) Gently lift the baking parchment onto a baking sheet. Using your fingers crimp around the edges and prick all over with a fork. Using a sharp knife, score it lightly with a sharp knife into 8 even wedges.
• Chill until firm.
• Bake in the oven for 35 minutes until the shortbread is a pale golden colour. Mark the wedges again and dust lightly with more caster sugar.
• Leave to cool on the baking tray for five minutes, then carefully lift off to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Cut into wedges to serve.

THE VERY BEST SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 160°C/Fan 140°C/gas 3. Lightly grease a 30cm x 23cm roasting or traybake tin. Mix together the flour and semolina in a bowl or food processor. Add the butter and sugar and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture is just beginning to bind together. Knead lightly until the mixture forms a smooth dough. Press the dough into the prepared tin and level it with the back of a spatula or a palette knife, making sure the mixture is evenly spread. Prick all over with a fork, sprinkle over the flaked almonds if using, and chill until firm. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a very pale golden brown. Sprinkle with demerara sugar and leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then cut into 30 fingers. Carefully lift the fingers out of the tin with a palette knife and finish cooling on a wire rack. Store in an airtight tin.

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.

SCOTCH SHORTBREAD (USES RICE FLOUR AND BERRY SUGAR)

Steps:

• Cream butter slightly.
• Blend berry sugar into slightly creamed butter.
• In a separate bowl, combine all purpose flour and rice flour.
• Mix about 2 cups of the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture.
• Knead the other 2 cups of flour mixture inches.
• Roll out onto a lightly floured board, making dough about 1/4 inch thick.
• Cut into circles or shapes of your choices.
• Bake at 275 until very lightly golden brown.
• (Baking time will vary depending on oven. Probably between 20-30 minutes).

TRUE SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Sift/sieve the flour into a bowl and add the pinch of salt. Put aside for the moment.
• Make some space in the fridge, if necessary, for the bowl you're about to use in case you quickly need to chill the mixture.
• Using butter, grease the baking tray well and put it aside for the moment. Yield for fingers (much preferred) is around a 7 to 8 inch square. For Petticoat Tails it will yield a chunky 8 inch circle.
• Pre-heat the oven (Gas Mark 3 (325F / 165C degrees)).
• Put the butter (if using unsalted butter then ADD a pinch of salt to it) into a medium-size mixing bowl and mash it with a fork until it is soft and creamy without lumps. But don't let your hand heat warm it so much it starts to get runny. If you do, then put the bowl complete with butter & fork into the fridge for 5 - 10 minutes to cool it, then take it out and mash quickly again until smooth and creamy with no lumps.
• Add the sugar and mix it in well, and quickly.
• Add the salted flour a VERY little at a time - mixing it in with the fork to start with, but do this quickly.
• Knead well (on a very lightly floured surface). I was advised: knead for several minutes, and that the longer you knead, the better the shortbread will be. I usually aim for kneading for anything up to 10 minutes as I was told to, but get fed up after 7 minutes and reckon it can't make THAT much difference! What is very important is: Don't allow the mixture to become too warm from your body heat whilst kneading. If it does, as before, put it into the fridge for a couple of minutes to chill it slightly before resuming. If you do find the need to chill it, as I often do on a hot day, then do knead it for at least a minute or so before rolling it.
• Something I should add despite the copious over-instruction here: I've never owned a rolling pin until a couple of days ago. I don't know if using one will affect the texture, but I always used to pat it down as best I could with my palms.
• Roll the mixture out to shape and size of the tray. For fingers, roll out to about 1/2 inch thick or perhaps even slightly thicker (this sounds awfully thick I know!, but it is important as if you go thinner it will affect the texture, and amazingly, the taste). For petticoat tails it needs to be a little under 1/2 inch thick to yield a chunky circle of about 7 to 8 inches.
• For fingers: prick all over with a fork and put it into baking tray. Do try to use one that can fit exactly, or one that at least three sides of the mixture fit snugly against, as any outer edges that don't butt right up against the sides of a tray tend to get a bit over-baked.
• For petticoat tails: using fork prongs, from the outer edge towards the centre, indent the top about a 1/2 inch all the way round to give it a nice crinkly edge - sort of like the teeth on a cogwheel, then prick all the way round the middle ideally rotating the fork or the pastry (or yourself!) to give a pretty effect when cut. Carefully lift and support the decorated circle and place and fit snugly into the circular baking tray. Score lightly (to about halfway downwards to bottom of the tray) into eight equal segments.
• Bake until golden brown for about 45 minutes at Gas Mark 3 (325F / 165C degrees). Do keep an eye on it! Petticoat tails seem to require a little less baking time. Hard to describe the colour to bake until. From experience I know what colour I'm looking for - you don't really want it to be undercooked, but when it's starting get a bit dark around the edges it's probably beginning to get a bit overdone already. Basically cook until it's just starting to darken round the edges then get it out quick and cool it - I usually place the hot tray on a very cold surface until cool.
• Whilst still quite warm in the tray, mark across and cut into finger-shaped pieces (if not making petticoat tails) - but leave them there in the tray, cut and together until fully cold.
• For petticoat tails it's customary to sprinkle liberally with castor sugar.
• Sorry to be such a pedant about this recipe! I feel a bit like a mother hen clucking about "must do this -- ", "should do that -- " :) But it is worth taking some care over as the resulting shortbread will be so good you'll be hassled to make it much more often by everyone you share the pieces with :).
• SERVING SUGGESTION:.
• Just on its own with a nice cup of tea or coffee, but also scrumptious on a plate with and/or dunked into a generous helping of creamy Cornish Dairy ice-cream and strawberries, jam (jelly) or fresh fruit.
• Personal Note:.
• I live an ultra low-fat, low-sugar (or at least low quantities of sugars at a hit), calorie-controlled lifestyle. (I'm on maintenance these days rather than reduction - I don't think I dare get any leaner or people would worry!).
• Notwithstanding, I still make and eat pieces of this shortbread occasionally despite the fact that there's nothing remotely low fat, low-sugar or low calorie about it. At least there's not much salt!
• You can make substitutions or add essences and flavourings and it'll probably work out fine but it won't be the same shortbread - it won't taste the same, it won't have the same texture, but the efforts you've put into making it (and clearing up afterwards) will have been the same. I reckon it's got to be worth trying it without substitutions first time around - you can always give the pieces that you know are much more than you really should be letting yourself scoff to friends and family who will bless you for it! And you don't NEED to eat them all at once! - they keep well in a biscuit tin or cookie jar in a cool, dark place for quite a long time (given half a chance!). I guess you could probably freeze them too (if enough left!).
• ADDITIONS SUGGESTIONS:.
• Occasionally just for a change, right near the end of kneading I have added glace cherries, or occasionally sultanas or raisins, sometimes with and sometimes without cinnamon. Cherries worked ok, but wasn't crazy about the fruit. You could even split the kneaded mixture in two and do half plain and half with extra stuff then nudge them together in the baking tray for baking. I've never tried dessicated/flakes coconut or chunky milk/dark chocolate chips or crystallized (candied) ginger pieces perhaps with a bit of ground ginger in with the mix though I've often been tempted to - do let me know how they turn out if you do!
• I do know that dipping the tops from above at an angle into good quality melted real chocolate (not baking chocolate) so that the bottom remains uncoated and only half of the top is coated then leaving to cool (that's the tough bit!) is absolute heaven on earth in the eating. It also occurred to me while choco-dunking one time to add some dessicated coconut into the chocolate first - but I didn't have any - bet it's nice though!
• Do enjoy and best wishes from England - and Scotland!

THE BEST SHORTBREAD RECIPE!

Steps:

• Preheat oven, 150 degrees C.
• Cream the butter and sugar.
• Add the plain flour and semolina or cornflour/polenta.
• Mix lightly.
• Press into a buttered 22cm square tin or a 20cm diameter round tin and prick with a fork.
• Bake for 50 minutes.
• Sprinkle with sugar.
• But into squares/slices whilst still hot and allow to cool.

SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°. Cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add 3-3/4 cups flour; mix well. Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead for 5 minutes, adding enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. , Roll to 1/2-in. thickness. Cut into 3x1-in. strips. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Prick with fork. Bake until cookies are lightly browned, 20-25 minutes. Cool.