Shortbread (From Scotland )

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Ingredients

Metric

  • 225g plain flour
  • 100g rice flour or ground rice
  • 100g caster sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 225g unsalted butter

Imperial / American

  • 8oz plain flour
  • 4oz rice flour or ground rice
  • 4oz caster sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 8oz unsalted butter

Method

Sift the two flours (or flour and rice), sugar and salt, into a mixing bowl. Soften the butter slightly, cut it up and rub it into the dry ingredients with your fingers. When it starts to bind, gather it together with one hand into a ball. Knead it on a lightly floured board until it is a soft, smooth and pliable dough.

Place a 20 cm / 8 inch flan ring on a greased baking tray and put in the dough. Press it out evenly with your knuckles to fit the ring. With the back of a knife, mark it into 6 or 8 triangles. Prick right through to the baking sheet with a fork in a neat pattern. Chill for at least 1 hour before baking to firm it up.

Bake in the center of a preheated cool oven at 150°C / 300°F / Gas Mark 2 for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until it is a pale biscuit color but still soft. Remove from the oven and leave to cool and shrink before removing the ring, then dust lightly with caster sugar. When cold store in an airtight tin.