Walkers Shortbread Mini Rounds, Traditional Pure Butter Scottish Recipe, 11g (Pack of 200)

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Before we get started, if you want to take your shortbread to the next several flavor levels, try our traditional Scottish Millionaire’s Shortbread. With layers of shortbread, caramel and chocolate it is the ultimate indulgence! Extracts: Add coffee, lemon, lavender, orange, peppermint, maple or rum extracts to intensify flavour. Be warned, a little goes a long way. In the UK tax code, shortbread is taxed as a flour confection (baked good) rather than as a common biscuit. [3] See also [ edit ] Once you’ve added the flour, go easy on the dough (feel free to beat the butter and sugar together really well though). Only mix as much as is needed to incorporate the flour into the butter mixture – this is best done by hand as it’s easy to over process the dough when using an electric mixer. The dough should be quite crumbly.

You can choose to leave the shortbread plain (still delicious!), try all 4 variations, or choose just a few.There are two theories regarding the name of these biscuits. It has been suggested that the name “petticoat tail” may be a corruption of the French petites gatelles (“little cakes”). Teas: Earl Grey tea has to be my favourite to add to the dough, but others might include English breakfast, mint tea, or camomile. (Use crushed-up tea leaves rather than hot water and the leaves.)

Rinsky, Glenn (2009). The pastry chef's companion: a comprehensive resource guide for the baking and pastry professional. Laura Halpin Rinsky. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. p.257. ISBN 978-0-470-00955-0. OCLC 173182689. Emma Kay, A History of British Baking: From Blood Bread to Bake-Off (Pen & Sword, 2020) pp. 113–114. "Despite the endless citations linking Mary Queen of Scots with 'Petticoat tails', I cannot find any legitimate or authentic links with shortbread and its conception in Scotland. Admittedly, during the 1700s it was the predominant country of manufacture, but not solely and certainly not the first to." No, though if you don’t want to soften your butter, you should rub the butter into the other ingredients instead of mixing it into the sugar. Although my partner and I do not like ginger biscuits we have to say that these do taste great if you like them in general, the flavour is spot on, the ginger is not too strong but for us sadly it is as we are not used to that flavour combination (sweet chocolate with spicy ginger). The dark chocolate tastes amazing, similar to dark chocolate McVitties.Herbs: Mixing finely chopped herbs into the dough provides a subtle but herbaceous essence that is delightful. Herbs like rosemary, thyme, sage and lavender are my favourite. There are only three ingredients so they need to be right – this definitely isn’t the time to swap butter for margarine, or caster sugar for other sugars. Shortbread was an expensive luxury and for ordinary people, shortbread was a special treat reserved just for special occasions such as weddings, Christmas and New Year. In Shetland it was traditional to break a decorated shortbread cake over the head of a new bride on the threshold of her new home. The custom of eating shortbread at New Year has its origins in the ancient pagan Yule Cakes which symbolised the sun. In Scotland it is still traditionally offered to “first footers” at New Year. The story of shortbread begins with the medieval “biscuit bread”. Any leftover dough from bread making was dried out in a low oven until it hardened into a type of rusk: the word “biscuit” means “twice cooked”. Gradually the yeast in the bread was replaced by butter, and biscuit bread developed into shortbread. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment as that’s the best tool for creaming butter and sugar.

Modern recipes also often deviate from the original by splitting the sugar into equal parts granulated and icing sugar and many add a portion of salt. At this point stir in any add-ins if using (candied ginger, candied citrus peel, herbs, nuts, etc.) oz. plain flour ~ 2oz. caster sugar ~ 1 oz. icing sugar ~ 2 oz. rice flour ~ 5 oz. butter ~ pinch of saltStore the shortbread in an airtight container for up to several weeks. Its flavor and texture improves over time. Other ingredients are often substituted for part of the flour to alter the texture. Rice flour or semolina makes it grittier, and cornflour makes it more tender. [3] Bere or oat flour may be added for flavour. [18] From our family vacation to Scotland last summer: View of Eilean Donan Castle from our vacation cottage. Now that you have your shortbread dough nailed, you have the perfect base recipe to then be able to flavour your shortbread. You can add as much or as little as your like! Here are just some ingredients that you can add.

Shortbread was expensive and reserved as a luxury for special occasions such as Christmas, Hogmanay (Scottish New Year's Eve), and weddings. In Scotland, it was traditional to break a decorated shortbread cake (infar-cake or dreaming bread) over the head of a new bride on the entrance of her new house. [9] [10] [11] Shortbread was also given as a gift. [3] Name [ edit ] You can either buy caster sugar (it’s overpriced) or make you’re own, which is what I do. Super easy: Just put the sugar in a blender or coffee/spice grinder and pulse until it’s very fine. one large circle, which is divided into segments as soon as it is taken out of the oven ( petticoat tails, which may have been named from the French petits cotés, a pointed biscuit eaten with wine, or petites gastelles, the old French term for little cakes. This term may also reference the shape of a petticoat [3]); Vanilla Extract & Salt - Vanilla extract and salt are not part of the core ingredients needed to make shortbread. If you're a purist then by all means leave them out. But I love the additional flavour and balance these two ingredients bring. Vanilla bean paste or the scraped beans from ½ a vanilla bean is a good substitute for vanilla extract. And use fine salt rather than flaked salt for an even distribution of salt throughout the dough. Challenge Butter— you can use unsalted or salted, but I prefer the additional flavor from salted butter

Optional Toppings

Davidson, Alan (2014-08-21). The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press. p.349. ISBN 978-0-19-104072-6. Scottish chef John Quigley, of Glasgow's Red Onion, describes shortbread as "the jewel in the crown" of Scottish baking. [21]