Traditional shortbread triangles. Made on September 8, 2012
This past weekend was the Highland Fling at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. With Highland Fling come men in kilts, people speaking in Scottish brogues, and the Highland Games. We demonstrated a wide variety of dishes including Haggis, Scotch Eggs, and Shortbread. You can see the recipes for the Haggis and Scotch Eggs by clicking on those words, the Shortbread was something that I hadn’t written about.
Below is my family’s recipe for Scottish Shortbread.
Shortbread
Ingredients
6 tbsp or 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
5 tbsp or 1/3 cup castor sugar (finer grain than crystalized sugar)
1 and ¼ cup (20 tbsp) butter
1 lb plain flour all purpose flour (rice flour may be used instead for a gluten free option)
Directions
Set oven to 325F
Cream the butter, icing sugar and castor sugar together using a wooden spoon.
Lavender shortbread cookies. Made September 9, 2012.
Sift the flour 2 or 3 times, then gradually mix into the creamed butter and sugar using your hands, until a firm dough is formed.
On a lightly floured surface roll or press dough until about 1/2 inch thick and use a cookie cutter to make ’rounds’ or shapes, or slice into 3″ x 1″ bars and prick the top with a fork.
Bake in pre-heated 325F oven for for approx 20-25 mins, shortbread will be a light golden color when it’s ready.
We sprinkled other additives to the dough to enhance the flavor including lavender, Damascus rose petals, and lemon zest. All of which turned out beautifully.
