May 12, 2011 - 10:35am
Good Shortbread
Hi
I bought some Shortbread made in Scotland and want to make something that good (I think the brand is Walker). Very dense and full of butter. I have been looking online and see some very different recipes: 1 says only use brown sugar, many call for about 2-1/2 cups cornstarch (?? - can that be right - they call it corn flour, is that different?), others have the 4-2-1 ratio and some call for salt, some not.
I'm dying here at work thinking about trying to recreate those wonderful morsels! Any TAT recipes would be appreciated.
Thanks
Nancy
Share
Here is one recipe that I have in my catalog.
Recipes - Shortbread
1 cup soft butter
1 cup soft margarine
1 cup icing sugar
½ cup corn starch
3 cups flour
Beat together butter, margarine, icing sugar & cornstarch. Add flour 1 cup at a time.
Drop on cookie sheet (about a teaspoon size) & bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes.
Nancy, type "shortbread" in the search box and you will find the recipe I posted some time ago. Very easy and so delicious. Hope you will try it, A. (I wouldn't use King Arthur all purpose flour, too much gluten.)
...to those crumbly Walker shortbread is long slow cooking. I have a recipe somewhere that calls for a 300F. oven. If I can find the recipe, I'll post it; it's the closest to Walker's that I've ever made.
Hi
Paddy is right about baking cool, as this type of shortbread is baked in blocks, or roundas as Pettitcoat Tails.
Recipe is as straight forward as this: in % so, you can weigh in whatever denominations you choose, except volume, which I don't use.
Soft Flour 90, Ground Rice/Semolina [coarse grind] 10, butter 67, sugar [caster or granulated] 33
Half cream the butter and sugar. Fold in the flour. Mix sufficiently to soften so it can be rolled out on the bench. Rest for half an hour, covered. Proceed with benchwork to make what you want. Rest half an hour before baking. There is no liquid in the formula [except that in the butter and flour], and fat level is very high. This means the protein in the flour is considerably de-natured, and so the paste can be worked a little to soften and still remain tolerant. Resting always helps. Use a docker over the block mixture before baking.
Best wishes
Andy
Thanks for all the help! I'm sorry I didn't even think about looking in the table of contents here - there's lots of info (I should have known). I have never had shortbread before. Now i'm hooked!
I buy a lot of food from a large salvage grocery store run by Mennonites in KY. They get the best chocolates, wafers, cookies ... and shortbread from Europe. Since most people in KY and TN don't buy organic and European, they have them priced cheaper than Hershey's! And I get all I want. I have sometimes left the place with 9-10 banana boxes (large) full of organic and European goodies for under $100.
But this Walker Shortbread just blew me away! I will start baking this weekend. I make my own butter and some recipes say that is a must - great!