Kerrie Christmas 5 - Shortbread

The basic version of shortbread, made by the hundreds at Christmas. Perfect to have with a cuppa, and makes a great gift.

Traditionally, the butter is rubbed by hand, however, I have a food processor which makes it much easier to mix the dough. Before the food processor I made the shortbreads by creaming the butter and sugar or by rubbing the butter into the flour. I like to use ground rice rather than the rice flour.

Shortbread

Ingredients

250g butter (soft) 2 cup plain flour 2 tablespoons ground rice or rice flour

1/3 cup icing sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 150 /160 deg C.

Use a food processer to combine all ingredients or cream the butter, sugar and vanilla, then add flour and ground rice.

Put onto a floured board and knead lightly to form a smooth ball. In very hot weather I put the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes or so. It needs to be firmish but not so hard that it is difficult to roll out.

Use a rolling pin to gently roll out the shortbread dough, it should be about 3-5mm thick, or pat out with your hands. 

Cut with a biscuit cutter. Try to cut out efficiently to avoid too much rerolling of the dough.

Place onto greased baking trays or trays lined with gladbake.  Any scraps can be amalgamated, then patted out again so more shapes can be cut. 

Bake for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Don’t overcook them.

Remove carefully to a cooling rack.

Store in an airtight container.

Mixture can also be made using rubbing in method.

Optional

Dip one edge of each of the shortbread in melted chocolate.