Not yet named food entry: Shortbread (Scotland/UK)

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I am a chocoholic. I only recognize chocolate as a proper dessert or sweet treat, outside of a few exceptions. I will scoff at bananas foster, cherries jubilee or apple pie. However, one fantastic exception is a shortbread biscuit: a solid yet flaky cookie that's heavy for its size and tastes buttery with a hint of sugar. I can't control myself when they are around.

Can you hear the bagpipes?
Today is my father's birthday. And one of the many traits that I share with him is this love of shortbread.  Since I'm traveling from Glasgow to Oban (in the above mentioned Highlands) today, I baked some shortbread fingers with love and sent them home last week via my mother so that the delicate slightly-sweet treats will be there for my dad in the morning.  All the while, I've been picking up different brands of commercial shortbread.


Detail of the opened package - it didn't stand a chance


Shortbread is simple to make; traditionally it's made from three ingredients: sugar, butter and flour.  The , and gets its names from its texture (from an old meaning of the word short, according to Wikipedia).  The high butter content inhibits the formation of any long gluten strands and this is what gives the biscuits their divine flaky texture. Though, it's a few scant ingredients and not a lot of skill to bake, I do feel that making it right is a labor of love.

My homemade shortbread fingers looking good enough to eat


After overdosing on shortbread and Jaffa cakes on my 2012 trip to Scotland and Wales, I googled “shortbread recipe like Marks and Spencer” to find a good start in order to recreate at home the biscuits that I hoard in the UK. (Also, shortbread bikkies are simpler to make then Jaffa cakes.) After a few trials, I have fine-tuned a recipe into something that it very close to the almost-powdery, slightly-grainy, butter-rich and sugar-kissed cookies that are Scotland’s pride and joy and that I (and my dad) adore.

My homemade with store-bought shortbread fingers

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