Shortbread: a simple, sweet & buttery treat
Shortbread is perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. In this post I share an easy, no fuss recipe for sweet and buttery shortbread.
I also give a few suggestions for how to vary the flavour of this simple yet always satisfying treat.
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Buttery shortbread must have been one of the first sweet treats I ever made. It’s so simple – no complicated method, not even any rolling out – and made with ingredients I always have to hand: butter, flour, a pinch of salt and sugar. The basic recipe is one I think every cook should have in their repertoire as, while it’s effortlessly simple, it’s also very, very good!
EASY
If you’ve made pastry, then you’ll be familiar with the ‘rubbing in’ method. This is where you incorporate softened butter (or lard or whatever) into the flour by gently rubbing together with your fingertips. In traditional pastry-making parlance, the mixture is supposed to look ‘like breadcrumbs’.
For shortbread you just take rubbing in a stage further: until the butter, flour (and sugar and salt) start to come together. If you were making pastry, you’d usually have to add a little water or some other liquid to form a dough and then roll it out. But the higher butter to flour ratio means that’s unnecessary. All you do is press the dough into a buttered, shallow cake tin.
I like quite thick shortbread so use an 18cm/7inch diameter round tin. But you can use a larger diameter tin if you want it thinner. Just reduce the cooking time a little.
Before placing into a preheated oven, take a sharp knife and mark the dough into 6 or 8 triangles. Don’t cut all the way down to the base of the dough; this is just to help you divide it up later without crumbling.
BAKING & STORING
I sprinkle a little extra sugar over the top, for crunch, and then bake in the oven until the shortbread is set and golden. Depending on your oven, this could take 30 – 40 minutes. Just don’t let it get too dark or it will spoil the flavour.
When done, cut deeply into the marks you made earlier and then leave in the tin to go completely cold. Tempting as it is to sneak a piece, you”re likely to have a crumbly mess if you try to turn it out before then. When ready, gently remove the pieces from the tin with the aid of a round bladed knife.
Stored in an airtight container, the shortbread should be fine for 2-3 days. Not that any lasts that long in our house.
QUICK STANDBY
Shortbread is a great standby when you want a sweet treat that’s quick, easy and made with ingredients already in your cupboard and fridge. For a savoury snack,i think cheese scones fill the same role.
The other morning I whipped up a batch of shortbread and my Very Cheesy Cheese Scones ready for the weekend. I made the scone mixture and cut them out while the shortbread was baking and they were ready to go in when the shortbread came out. Easy.
FLAVOURINGS
Once you’re happy with the basic recipe, try some of these variations for differently flavoured shortbread – just mix in along with the rest of the ingredients:
- Orange or lemon shortbread: add the finely grated zest of an orange or lemon
- Cinnamon shortbread: add 1-2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
- Chocolate chip shortbread: add around 75g of dark chocolate, bashed into small pieces
- Ginger shortbread: add 2 balls of stem ginger from a jar, finely chopped
Simple Butter Shortbread
This incredibly simple recipe makes a delicious buttery shortbread. Great for a sweet treat with a cup of tea or coffee.
Ingredients
- 110 g butter plus extra for greasing
- 180 g plain flour
- 1 pinch salt
- 50 g sugar plus extra for sprinkling
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 170C / 150C Fan / Gas 3.
Butter an 18cm/7 inch shallow cake tin.
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Stir together in a bowl the flour, salt and sugar.
Rub in the butter then squeeze the mixture together into a rough ball of dough.
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Press the dough into the base of the cake tin, making sure you go right to the edges, smoothing the top with a spoon.
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With a sharp knife, mark the top into 6 or 8 triangles.
Sprinkle with a little sugar then bake until set and golden (30-40 min).
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Cut deeply into the marks you made earlier & leave to cool in the tin before turning out.
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Store in an airtight container and eat within 2-3 days
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