This shortbread recipe is super easy to make, has a short cooking time and tastes great! What’s not to love?
How To Make Shortbread
The key to making easy shortbread also taste like the best shortbread is to use real butter.
Some recipes do suggest that you can use margarine in place of butter but personally, for me, the rich buttery taste of the real thing is what gives this shortbread a more traditional and AMAZING taste.
What makes this an easy shortbread recipe is that the only ingredients are; flour, butter and caster sugar.
Yes, that’s right, only 3 ingredients are needed to turn this into probably the best shortbread you’ve ever made!
Shortbread should take 15 to 20 minutes to cook in the oven, check on it at 15 minutes to see how it is cooking.
It’s important to make sure that the shortbread doesn’t cook for too long and turn brown. If it does, it’s cooked for too long, and will be a little hard to munch on; rather than soft and melt in your mouth loveliness.
Side note: If you take the shortbread out and really is too soft, pop it back in for a further 2 minutes – but don’t let it go hard.
The Quick Guide To Making Easy Shortbread
1. Make sure the butter is at room temperature and soft to touch. If it is too hard it will too hard to cream in with the sugar. You can use an electric mixer if you want to, but if the butter is soft enough you’ll have no problem creaming it up with a wooden spoon.
2. Sift the flour into the creamed butter and sugar. Gently mix it all together with your hands.
3. A soft dough should form. If it is too crumbly add a little more butter, conversely, if it is too sticky, add a little flour.
4. Press the dough into a greased baking tin and press it down with your hands. I like to gently score the slices of the shortbread, as well as use a fork to make some decorative holes on the surface before putting it in the oven.
Side Note: I got a bit carried away with my fork stabbing – you don’t need to add that many holes (unless you want to!)
5. Once the shortbread has been in for about 15-20 minutes, take it out – make sure it doesn’t go brown or it will be too hard. I usually slice up the shortbread while it is still warm and soft, leaving it in the baking tin until it is completely cool. I also sprinkle a little extra caster sugar over the top.
Storing Shortbread – How Long Will It Last?
I’ve never had the option of putting this to the test as it rarely lasts longer than a day or 2. However, should you find you have uneaten shortbread, it will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
The Best Shortbread Recipe
Yield: 8 slices
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Mmmm, shortbread! It tastes like an indulgent treat yet it is so quick and easy to make - it only needs 3 ingredients! Go on, go make it now...
This unexpected addition will make buttery confections like shortbreads and shortcakes even more tender and flaky. “Biscuits should be crumbly, buttery and sweet,” reads a headnote for a cinnamon sugar-spiced shortbread recipe in the Ritz London Cookbook.
Traditional Scottish shortbread is a simple recipe made with sugar, butter, flour, and salt. Other shortbread styles will include leavening agents like baking powder and baking soda, which makes them crisp instead of crumbly like traditional Scottish shortbread.
The most common mistakes when making shortbread are over-working the dough, and incorporating too much flour. The less you work the dough, the more crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth your shortbread cookies will be.
You can whisk 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons of water and 2 teaspoons of baking powder together to replace each egg in baked goods like cookies, brownies or quick breads. This substitution won't impact a recipes' flavor profile the way egg substitutions like mashed banana or flaxseed might.
Cornstarch provides the shortbread with structure, but its biggest job is keeping the cookies extra soft, tender, and light. I love adding a small amount to chocolate chip cookies too. Optional Coarse Sugar Topping: For an optional sparkly crunch on your shortbread wedges, add a sprinkle of coarse sugar before baking.
The name "millionaire's shortbread" appears to have originated in Scotland. The "millionaire" prefix to millionaire's shortbread or millionaires slice implies a level of decadence and wealth to the sweet treat, that it is an upgrade from regular shortbread.
For us Americans, shortbread qualifies as a type of cookie. In the UK, shortbread is called a biscuit. For Brits, a biscuit is a hard, snappable, typically sweet baked good.
The word "bread" comes from "biscuit bread" which was made from leftover bread dough that was sweetened and dried out in the oven to make biscuits. Why do you poke holes in shortbread? The holes allow the moisture to escape during baking and more even heat distribution. This helps dry out and crisp up the cookies.
Sugar provides a fast source of energy. There are rarely any artificial additives. Cons: Shortbread is a weight watcher's nightmare because it is extremely high in saturated fat and calories.
Piercing the shortbread with a fork is not only for decoration, but it's meant for more even baking. Poking holes in the shortbread allows the heat to penetrate the cookie, hence more even baking. Notice I'm using powdered sugar here. You'll see lots of shortbread recipes using granulated sugar.
On a lightly floured surface, roll it out to a ½ cm (¼ inch) thick. Note: if the dough is too soft at this point then wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes or longer until it firms up slightly and makes it easier to roll out.
Should butter be cold or room temperature for making shortbread? Always start with cold butter straight from the refrigerator. This will keep the dough from warming up, making it greasy and difficult to roll out.
Since you will be cooking your shortbread in the lower third of the oven, you will get some top browning as the cookie bakes. The surface of the shortbread should be a toasty light brown when it is cooked. It should never appear raw or slightly opaque in the middle.
For super light, crumbly biscuits try grating or pushing the yolks of hard-boiled eggs through a sieve into the biscuit dough. This increases the fat content and slows down the development of gluten. Cookie recipes on the other hand are more likely to contain eggs. Adding moisture as well as binding the mixture.
Eggs promote puffiness and spreading in cookies, while also holding the cookie together during baking. The height and texture of the final product is determined by how much egg is incorporated into the batter. Substituting ingredients can make or break a recipe.
Egg whites entrap more air while contributing more water, encouraging steam and gluten formation: perfect conditions for lean cookies that are thick and puffy. Cakey. Yolks cut the water and throw in fat, hindering both gluten development and aeration, producing cookies that are dense, tender, and rich.
Eggs play an important role in everything from cakes and cookies to meringues and pastry cream — they create structure and stability within a batter, they help thicken and emulsify sauces and custards, they add moisture to cakes and other baked goods, and can even act as glue or glaze.
Introduction: My name is Fr. Dewey Fisher, I am a powerful, open, faithful, combative, spotless, faithful, fair person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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