I am off to see family tomorrow, and I don’t like to go empty handed. As it was Valentine’s Day recently, I felt something heart-shaped would be an appropriate theme.

I could have gone for regular heart-shaped cookies, but wanted something a little more special. Something like shortbread.

Shortbread’s origins are much like my husbands – Scottish. Traditionally, it is three ingredients – one part sugar, two parts butter, and three parts flour. The high content of butter is what gives it its trademark short crumbly texture. More recently, many recipes have taken to swapping out some of the flour for ground rice, or cornflour, which alters the texture.

In this recipe, I have used cornflour. Cornflour gives a softer, more crumbly melt-in-the-mouth texture. Ground rice, or semolina, gives the shortbread a crisp crunchier texture, so if that is what you are after, go ahead and use that instead.

Scottish Shortbread

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Serves

8-12 depending on size

Ingredients

• 80g Caster Sugar
• 160g Unsalted Butter
• 180g Plain Flour
• 60g Cornflour (alternatively use ground rice/semolina for crunchy shortbread)

Directions

1.	Preheat the oven to Gas 4 / 180°C / 350°F
2.	Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
3.	Sift together the cornflour and flour
4.	Add the flour to the butter and sugar, and mix into a smooth dough. Try not to overmix
5.	Tip onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to about ½-1"/1-2cm thick
6.	Use a cookie cutter of your choice, or cut into fingers
7.	Place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and put fork indents along the top if you want
8.	Alternatively, you can press into a shortbread baking pan
9.	Bake for 20 minutes until pale golden-brown
10.	Sprinkle with more caster sugar, then allow to cool for 10 minutes before transferring carefully to a cooling rack

Note

Variations:

Lemon Shortbread - add the zest of 1 whole unwaxed lemon

Choc Chip Shortbread - add 100g chocolate chips

Cinnamon Shortbread - use golden caster sugar, and add 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cherry Shortbread - add 50g of chopped glace cherries