A Baking Lesson from a Master

During our recent trip to Chicago my Aunt convinced my Grandma to educate us both in the proper way to make Scottish Shortbread.  My Grandmother's side of the family hails from Scotland and she's been making shortbread her whole life. She says she doesn't really remember who taught her how to make it. I was impressed that she didn't even need to look at a recipe at all. She just walked into the kitchen and started the process as if it was as second nature as breathing. My aunt insists that most people get it wrong and when they make it, it lacks that light flaky tenderness that is pretty much a guarantee when my Grandma makes it. So here's how to make a proper batch of shortbread:

In a bowl mix the following:

 1 cup of unsalted butter (It HAS to be real butter people!)

1/2 cup white sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

NOTE: Don't use the entire 2 cups of flour right away, reserved a small portion to use when kneading the dough so that it doesn't stick. I didn't know this part. Apparently if you go over the the flour your cookies will become too dry.

See all of that seemingly 'extra' flour on my Grandma's hands? It's the reserve flour from her 2 cups.



Once you're got all of the ingredients mixed together, you start kneading the dough for precisely 5 minutes. During this time the texture transforms from looking rather lumpy and sticky to appearing quite sleek with everything well incorporated.



Divide the dough in half and flatten into pie dishes.

Imprint fork lines around the edges and then prick the center all over with the fork tines.

Be sure to pre-slice the dough before you bake it. If the dough pulls along with the fork while you are cutting it then my Grandma says you probably didn't knead the dough long enough.

Bake the shortbread in an oven preheated to 325 for 30 minutes. You don't want the cookies to brown, they should just be starting to get sightly golden around the edge. It's easy to over-bake or under-bake these cookies so keep an eye on them.

Sadly, I didn't get a good pictures of the finished product, but it was just as light and flaky and buttery as my aunt promised it would be.