Walkers Shortbread Mini Rounds, Traditional Pure Butter Scottish Recipe, 11g (Pack of 200)

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Stamp out as many rounds as you can. Lay them onto a baking tray covered in parchment paper. If you need a little help to lift them off the surface, then just slide a floured spatula or off-set spatula under the cookie round and gently lift it up (Image 7). Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain any leavening, such as baking powder or baking soda. Shortbread is widely associated with Christmas and Hogmanay festivities in Scotland, and some Scottish brands are exported around the world.

From our family vacation to Scotland last summer: View of Eilean Donan Castle from our vacation cottage. Extracts: Add coffee, lemon, lavender, orange, peppermint, maple or rum extracts to intensify flavour. Be warned, a little goes a long way. Today shortbread is a popular souvenir from Scotland. As well as plain shortbread, shortbread containing fruit, nuts and chocolate is now available, beautifully gift-wrapped in tartan or presented in tartan boxes. There are only three ingredients so they need to be right – this definitely isn’t the time to swap butter for margarine, or caster sugar for other sugars.Millionaire's shortbread, also called caramel squares, is a modern variation, in which shortbread is topped with caramel and chocolate. [17] Cultural associations [ edit ]

Both work, it depends what you want to achieve. When using a biscuit cutter you always cut the dough before baking (and in this recipe the dough is cut into rectangles first), but there will always be a little spreading as the dough cooks. Since we didn't like them my partner took these biscuits to work and her colleagues agreed that these were the best ginger biscuits they tried and that they loved them, so I am just relaying the information. Shortbread has been attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots, who in the mid-16th century was said to be very fond of Petticoat Tails, a thin, crisp, buttery shortbread originally flavoured with caraway seeds.

1 Recipe, 4 Variations

Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until well combined. Add the flour and pulse briefly until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Jamieson, John (1841). An etymological dictionary of the Scottish language (2nded.). Edinburgh: Andrew Shortrede. p.191 . Retrieved 10 May 2018. Cream the butter and icing sugar together, covering the bowl with a tea towel to begin with so that the icing sugar doesn’t fly everywhere. When fully combined, sift in the flour and mix to a soft dough. Another key is using caster sugar. Not regular granulated sugar. Not powdered sugar. Caster sugar is very fine granulated sugar. Caster sugar is commonly used in British baking and it’s an all-around smarter choice than granulated. The reason is that the sugar crystals in granulated sugar are much larger and take longer to dissolve during baking and may not dissolve completely. Caster sugar dissolves more rapidly leaving a finer texture to the baked good.

Add mix-ins of choice. Divide dough into 4 bowls and add mix-ins. If you only want to make a only few of the flavor variations, divide dough accordingly. Shortbread was an expensive luxury and for ordinary people, shortbread was a special treat reserved just for special occasions such as weddings, Christmas and New Year. In Shetland it was traditional to break a decorated shortbread cake over the head of a new bride on the threshold of her new home. The custom of eating shortbread at New Year has its origins in the ancient pagan Yule Cakes which symbolised the sun. In Scotland it is still traditionally offered to “first footers” at New Year.

Now that you have your shortbread dough nailed, you have the perfect base recipe to then be able to flavour your shortbread. You can add as much or as little as your like! Here are just some ingredients that you can add. Scottish cooks have always been famous for their soups, haggis (a dish traditionally served on Burns Night) and their baking, especially scones, pancakes, fruit cakes, oatcakes and shortbread. Davidson, Alan (2014-08-21). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press. p.349. ISBN 978-0-19-104072-6.