6th December 2016
Dec. 6th, 2016 12:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silvs_advent_dw
History of shortbread
Shortbread resulted from medieval biscuit bread, which was a twice-baked, enriched bread roll dusted with sugar and spices and hardened into a hard, dry, sweetened biscuit called a rusk. Eventually, yeast from the original rusk recipe was replaced by butter, which was becoming more of a staple in Britain and Ireland.
Although shortbread was prepared during much of the 12th century, the refinement of shortbread is credited to Mary, Queen of Scots in the 16th century. This type of shortbread was baked, cut into triangular wedges, and flavoured with caraway seeds.
Shortbread was expensive and reserved as a luxury for special occasions such as Christmas, Hogmanay (Scottish New Year’s Eve), and weddings. In Shetland, it is traditional to break a decorated shortbread cake over the head of a new bride on the entrance of her new house.
Shortbread originated in Scotland, with the first printed recipe, in 1736, from a Scotswoman named Mrs McLintock. Shortbread is widely associated with Christmas and Hogmanay festivities in Scotland, and the Scottish brand Walkers Shortbread is exported around the world. Shortbread is baked at a low temperature to avoid browning. When cooked, it is nearly white, or a light golden brown. It may be sprinkled with more sugar while cooling. It may even be crumbly before cooled, but will become firmer after cooling
Shortbread 01
6oz plain flour
1.5 oz ground rice or semolina
1.5 oz cornflour
3oz caster sugar
6oz butter
Put all in mixer, mix to a dough.
Next choice is yours, either....
Shape, press, roll onto a baking sheet into a 1 round or make 2 smaller ones.
Press into a shortbread mould.
OR
Roll out and stamp out using a cutter.
OR
Roll out and cut into fingers.
Whichever you choose prick all over many times with a fork.
Bake 160c (320F) till golden....not too brown, guide time 20/30mins, sprinkle with castor
sugar. Leave till cold before cutting.
Shortbread 02
7oz plain flour
4oz caster sugar
few drops vanilla essence (extract is better if you've got it)
2oz cornflour
6oz soft butter
Cream the sugar and butter together, then add the vanilla essence and the flour and cornflour. Mix well until you can form a dough. Then wrap and chill for a few minutes before pressing into a greased 7 x 10" baking/swiss roll tin. Prick all over the surface with a fork and bake in a pre-heated over (160C, 320F) for 30 mins or until pale golden. Cut the shortbread into fingers, allow to cool in the tin for a while, then remove and put on a wire rack to cool
Alternatively, if you're feeling really lazy, you can just throw all the ingredients in a food processor and mix until a dough ball forms. This isn't quite as good as doing it by hand, but it's certainly very edible.
And finally Shortbread 03 This one gets the vote from SilvSon#1
8oz plain flour
4oz ground rice
4oz granulated sugar
8oz butter (not margarine!) Allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
Sift dry ingredients, rub in butter, press into greased sandwich tin. Prick all over. Bake for 30 minutes at 160°C/320°F. Slice into fingers but return to oven for 10 minutes with oven off. Remove from oven and allow to cool a little before removing from tin.
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no subject
Date: 2016-12-06 12:30 am (UTC)I can certainly eat shortbread at any time of year but it is essential to have it as part of the Christmas provisions.
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Date: 2016-12-10 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-12-10 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-06 09:09 am (UTC)And I enjoyed the history part, too. Thanks!
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Date: 2016-12-10 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-06 09:26 am (UTC)They all sound lovely, but especially #3
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Date: 2016-12-10 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2016-12-06 09:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-06 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-06 11:34 pm (UTC)My boys have no idea what ounces are at all because once they were learning such things the UK had gone mainly metric, but not completely. Roads are still in miles and beer is still in pints but milk and wine are in litres! It truly makes no sense, but metric is so much easier to calculate because it's in tens.
The recipes were all my mother's originally so they were in pounds and ounces as she had no clue what a kilogram was.
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Date: 2016-12-06 11:59 pm (UTC)I suspect not being consequent about one system will make it much more difficult.
It's what she grew up with, never realizing her daughter would make those recipes available (and famous) for all of us! ;)
I used to make shortbread often before I had kids. I brought a mini recipe book home from Pitlochry (over 30 years ago) and I remember having to scribble the (for me) right measurements in the side lines. It was one that had scones in it, so that was at the time my main to follow recipe!
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Date: 2016-12-10 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-06 08:21 pm (UTC)There's no escaping it at this time of year! But . . . yum!!
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Date: 2016-12-10 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-06 11:44 pm (UTC)YAY!
I'll try at least one of the recipes for our Christmas get-together at the climbing hall (me and the only other girl in the group somehow ended up with being the designated bakers *rolls eyes*)
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Date: 2016-12-10 11:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 02:10 am (UTC)(by the way - do you think rice flour works instead of ground rice as well in #3? I have a opend package of rice flour lying around which I'll need to use up in the near future...)
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Date: 2016-12-07 06:03 pm (UTC)I'm willing to try make it though! Probably several times, as my oven is not
all that precise in the degree department anymore. :)
Maybe I will poke Sarah and bat my eyelashes... (not that it has ever worked,
but one never knows! *g*)
Thanks for the recipes!
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Date: 2016-12-10 11:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-10 11:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-07 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-10 11:50 pm (UTC)The difference in Ground Rice and Rice Flour is in the texture of the product. Both are gluten free fine creamy-off white powder produced by milling polished long grain rice. The Ground Rice is just slightly coarser than the Rice Flour. There is nothing else added to these products.
The final shortbread should be a little bit crunchy but I've no idea if i's the ground rice that does that. As the other recipes don't have ground rice I guess you could try it and see!
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Date: 2016-12-11 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 11:28 pm (UTC)However, my local Tesco don't do it anymore :-(
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Date: 2016-12-11 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-12-11 11:53 pm (UTC)