Martha's Scottish Shortbread

Yield:
1 8-inch round

A touch of rice flour is the secret to perfectly crisp shortbread. With such a short ingredient list, it's important to use the best-quality salted butter you can find.

Ingredients

  • Vegetable-oil cooking spray, for mold

  • ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) salted butter, room temperature

  • ¾ superfine sugar

  • 1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

  • ¼ cup rice flour

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Coat an 8-inch ceramic shortbread mold with cooking spray; set aside.

  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar until well combined. Add flours and mix until just combined and a shaggy dough forms.

  3. Firmly press dough into mold in an even layer. Bake until edges just begin to turn golden, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Remove from oven; turn oven off. Let shortbread cool in mold 10 minutes.

  4. Invert a parchment-lined baking sheet onto back of mold. Carefully re-invert, turning mold onto sheet; lift off mold. Using a sharp knife, cut shortbread into wedges. Separate wedges, then return sheet to oven until shortbread is dry, at least 1 hour. Let cool completely.

    traditional scottish shortbread
    Mike Krautter

Cook's Notes

For this recipe, you will need a shortbread mold like the thistle one Martha used ($34.95, emersoncreekpottery.com).

Related Articles