Shortbread
Three ingredients in a fixed ratio, worked as little as possible and baked pale.
- Prep
- 15m
- Cook
- 40m
- Waiting
- 45m
- Total
- 1h 40m
- Serves
- 16 fingers
- Effort
- Easy
Scale
Units
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 200 g | Cream lightly — 1 minute, not 5 2m | Work in just until it holds together 3m Stop the moment it clumps. Overworked shortbread is hard, not short. | Press into a lined tin, prick all over, chill 30 minutes 40m Docking lets steam escape so it stays flat and dense. | Bake at 150°C / 300°F until pale straw, then cut while hot 40m Low and slow. Browned shortbread has lost the point. | |
| 100 g | |||||
| 1/2 tsp | |||||
| 250 g | |||||
| 50 g | |||||
| 1 tbsp | |||||
-
Cream lightly — 1 minute, not 5
2m- soft unsalted butter 200 g
- caster sugar 100 g
- fine salt 1/2 tsp
-
Work in just until it holds together
3m- from 1 Cream lightly — 1 minute, not 5
- plain flour 250 g
- cornflour 50 g
Stop the moment it clumps. Overworked shortbread is hard, not short.
-
Press into a lined tin, prick all over, chill 30 minutes
40m- from 2 Work in just until it holds together
Docking lets steam escape so it stays flat and dense.
-
Bake at 150°C / 300°F until pale straw, then cut while hot
40m- from 3 Press into a lined tin, prick all over, chill 30 minutes
- caster sugar 1 tbsp
Low and slow. Browned shortbread has lost the point.
The ratio
Two parts butter, one part sugar, three parts flour, by weight. Every shortbread variation is a substitution inside that frame — swapping a fifth of the flour for cornflour, rice flour or ground almonds all reduce gluten and make it more crumbly.
Notes
- “Short” means low gluten development. Every extra second of mixing works against you.
- Cut it hot and let it cool in the tin. Cold shortbread shatters under a knife.
- It keeps two weeks in a tin, which is unusual for a biscuit and one of the reasons it exists.