Scottish Shortbread

This came from a friend of mine's grandmother (Clan MacLaren) and whose family was from the Glasgow area. These are similar but a little richer than the Wallker shortbread.

1 cup (250 g, 8 oz) butter
1/2 cup (200g, 7 oz) confectioners sugar (10x)
2 cups (250g, 8 oz) flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Cream butter and sugar together thoroughly. Sift baking powder and salt into the flour and add to the butter mixture. Divide dough into 4 equal balls. Roll out each ball into a 4-5" circle (about 1/3 of an inch thick). Crimp around the edge with a fork and prick in the middle in several places. Slice round into 6 or 8 pieces like a pie. Put pieces on a baking sheet separately and bake 20-25 minutes in a 350 degree oven (Gas Mark 4) until delicately brown.

Notes:
- If the dough is too sticky to be handled, refrigerate the dough for a bit until it can be handled more easily.
- If you would prefer bars to wedges, lightly press the dough into a greased 8"x8" glass baking dish and bake.

Similar tae ma grannie's recipe, but shie widnae yaes the salt or pooder - aye tasted guid withoot that tae mie.

Thanks fer poastin'd tho', grand tae see guid food aboot the place.

I think you're right, the salt and baking powder probably don't do much and aren't really necessary.

Do you have any of your grannie's recipes you might like to share? I am always willing to try something new, especially from Scotland.

Hi , found this forum and had a question.

I have made shortbread several times and found that the type of butter really made the difference.

I wondered about the types and thoughts others have had.

Flora

I agree...using salted or unsalted butter changes the taste slightly. I generally use unsalted unless the recipe states one way or the other.

I have always tried to use unsalted butter, but I found the brand of butter really made a difference. The best brand that I found so far is Kerrygold Irish butter as opposed to butter from U.S. I wonder if fresh homemade butter would make a difference?

Flora

I would think that homemade butter might be even better. I don't care much for store bought butter since they add so many other ingredients/chemicals to it.

my Grandma Walker gave me her shortbread recipe

1/2 pound real butter
1/2 c and 2 tbl sugar extra fine
2 1/2 c flour

Mix butter and sugar until fluffy
Gently mix in flour. She always said gently cause will make it tuff
Spread in 8" x 16" pan, pierce top and bake until golden at 325

I am sorry. the bit about mixing gently, well the way I said it makes it sound like gently will make the dough tough. Grandma said to mix gently as mixing like you would a cake or cookies or something would make the dough come out tough instead of a bit flakey.

Personally, I like Normandy butter for these, or Amish butter. I have shortbread molds that I use, so I take a ball of the dough and press the mold in rather than bars or wedges or dodecahedrons, or...