Home made shortbread tastes so much better than bought shortbread if it is made with proper butter. I got a gadget a few years ago from Amazon which makes shortbread look fancy for the hampers we usually make for friends and family at Christmas. It only cost £14 for two, with lots of different patterns, and last year they were even cheaper.
To stop short bread spreading and to keep it in a nice shape put the cut out shapes in the fridge for 20 minutes before baking. This is our favourite short bread recipe, and it is so simple and easy to make. It isn’t particularly frugal, but older family and friends love them, and they make a frugal, nice gift if a couple are placed into a cellophane bag with a ribbon tied around. You don’t need a special cutter for short bread and can use any shape cutter or, if you don’t have cutters, you can form the dough into a large circle and section into triangles.
Shortbread is one of those things that I would never chose at a bakery, but when you eat it you remember how nice it is. You can make it cheaper by using margarine instead of butter, but it doesn’t taste as good, and that extra cost is worth it.
RECIPE
250g unsalted butter
125g sugar
375g plain flour.
1. Put the flour sugar and butter into a bowl, and preheat the oven to 160⁰C.
2.Rub in the butter, using the tips of the fingers, until it looks like bread crumbs.
3. Bring the dough together by squeezing it in to a ball.
4. Roll out the dough to the thickness you want. We like them thick, the old fashioned way, at a cm or half an inch, but some people like them thinner.
5. Cut out and place on a baking tray (we use silicon lining but you can use parchment paper)
6. Sprinkle with sugar if desired (I don’t).
7. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.
8. Bake for 25 to 30 mins until a pale golden colour, but check earlier if you have rolled them less than the cm.
Didn’t realise shortbread was so few ingredients, definitely going to make these. Thank you
Yes, not particularly cheap unless you make the butter, but so easy. x
I’ll follow this recipe, when I worked in the school primary school kitchen I’d make shortbread for Burns lunch and use my wooden thistle block, the kids were so impressed 😍. I’ll make this for New year,thanks for sharing your recipe. X
No worries. I would love one of those wooden blocks
[…] memory came up on my FB from 2 years ago when we made short bread to take as a present to my great, great aunt, and for the neighbours who had been keeping an eye on […]