Excellent post, archiduc!
I am of Scottish descent, and spent a short three, wonderful, days there as part of a tour.
I would love it if you would post some of your recipes - particularly your favorite, most buttery shortbread recipe, Athol Brose and Tablet.
Lee
Hi Lee,
Shortbread is the classic, Scottish, biscuit confection but you need 4 ingredients for this: plain flour, caster sugar (can`t remember what this is called in the USA), rice flour and butter. Now, shortbread has to be made with rice flour, and butter. Don`t think of making SHORTBREAD unless you are prepared to use butter. The mixture may be used to make a "BANNOCK" thick round cut into wedges or used, as I like to make it into thin biscuits. However, for me the critical point is the ingredients and these have to be right!
Many people make shortbread with cornflour and plain flour or just plain flour and this is not correct - RICE flour is the essential and critical ingredient. So, what`s the difference? When you rub cornflour or corn starch between finger and thumb it "squeaks"
You can feel the difference between cornfour and rice flour. Rice flour may be labelled as "Farine De Riz. Reismehl, Rijstmeel, Rismel, Riisijauho, Farina di Riso, Harina De Arroz or Rismjol". When you rub it between the finger and thumb it is gritty like a fine sand and lacks the smoothness and "squeak" of cornflour/cornstarch. Imagine the sand on the finest beach - that`s what rice flour feels like and that`s what you need to make Shortbread.
Now, there are 4 methods of making biscuits: creamed (cream the fat and sugar); rubbed in (rub in the fat to flour and dry ingredients); melted (melt the fat and sugar, e.g., treacle and add to dry ingredients) and kneaded (combine all ingredients simulataneously).
Shortbread is traditionally made by the KNEADING METHOD and uses the heel of the hand. So - where is the heel of the hand? Clench your fist and look at your hand. The bit not covered by your fingers is the heel so this is the point you use to mix the ingredients. Now, lets think about this. If you gather ingredients IN your hand, the inherent heat created by clenching and flexing your hand would/might melt the fat. However, if you work them with the heel of your hand, because this part of your hand is open to the air and not closed or clenched it remains cold or cool and mixes ingredients without melting the fat.
The relationship between the ingredients is a constant:
2 parts plain flour (100gms) ( no raising agent) (sieved)
2 parts butter (100gms) cut up into small pieces
1 part rice flour (50gms) (sieve with plain flour)
1 part caster sugar (50 gms) (sieve with the flour)
Additional flour and rice flour combined in equal proporions are required for rolling the dough.
Oven temperature: 350/180C/Gas 4
Set shelves around the middle - oven position - middle. too high and the biscuits will brown too quickly and too low and they will spread. You can switch shelves as the biscuits cook!
In other words the relationship between ingredients is always 2 parts flour and butter to 1 part rice flour and sugar. This is the constant about which you MUST abide so that if you find you have 75gms rice flour and want to make shortbread the you will need 75gms caster sugar and 150gms EACH of butter and plain flour.
Place a sieve over a bowl and sieve the flour, sugar and rice flour. Add the butter, cut up into small bits. Work together with the heel of the hand until all the ingredients are combined. Do not over work the mixture - all you are seeking to do is combine the ingredients until they JUST form a coherent ball.
Turn the dough onto a board or work surface lightly dusted with a mixture of plain flour and rice flour and knead the dough for about 1 minute (no more) to give a smooth dough. Set aside and allow the dough to relax. In a cold climate or winter, cover with a piece of cling film and set aside for 20 minutes. In a hot climate or summer, refrigerate, covered with cling film for 20 minutes - 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough on a surface and with a rolling pin dusted in a mix of plain flour and rice flour to a thickness of 1/8 inch or 2mm. Prick the dough all over using a fork. Cut out using a fluted cutter and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown at the edges. Remove from the oven, dust with caster sugar and place on a cooling rack to cool and crisp up. Excess dough may be gathered up, recombined and rolled out again and cut out.
Allow the bscuits to cool before packing in an airtight tin.
For a traditional Scottish Shortbread made via a wooden mould with a cut emblem like a a "thistle" then the instructuctions would be slightly different and oven temperatures would be slightly different. Cook at 325F/170C/Gas 3. Mark into wedges whilst still hot using a sharp knife.
For anyone coming to the UK and seeking to buy a shortbread mould, what you need is one which is deeply cut so that when the mixture is turned out of the mould and spreads, as it will when cooking, it retains it`s shape. The wooden shortbread mould is never placed in the oven!
For cooking a shortbread in a mould, (bought in Scotland) the average quantity of ingredients are 100 gmsflour, 50 gms butter, 50gms caster sugar and 100 gms butter. The dough should be mixed, pressed into the mould (which has been well dusted with rice flour), inverted and the dough turned out of the mould prior to cooking. In other words, a wooden mould is used to shape the shortbread but NOT used in cooking - it never goes into the oven!
Hope this helps,
Archiduc