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Lazy Shortbread
This is one of the easiest shortbread recipes I've ever come across.
9 oz plain flour,9 oz self-raising flour,
9 oz cornflour,
9 oz castor sugar,
2 250gm packs butter
Method
- Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl.
- Melt butter gently in a saucepan.
- (Be careful at this stage; "chip pan fires" can happen with hot butter!) Pour melted butter into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Divide the mixture into two and spread evenly into two baking trays (approx 16" x 10"). Prick the shortbread with a fork at intervals - create a pattern, if you like. Place the baking trays into a moderate oven (I use a fan oven which I heat to 150șC) and bake until golden brown.
- Take out of the oven and cut into portions, dust with castor sugar and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
My thanks to Mrs Mary Latimer, Helensburgh for kindly giving me this recipe several years ago. I have used it for our coffee shop ever since!
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Home Baking - Less Expensive and Tastier Food
It all started innocently enough; we were contacted by one of the editors at She magazine in London. That surprised us a little. However, She Magazine were trying to source a supplier of empire biscuits for a photoshoot - and the biscuits were required in London as quickly as possible to meet the photographer's deadline. So, we duly despatched the empire bisuits and continued with our daily routine.
Fast forward a couple of months and my sister, Mary, visited us. She lives in Germany now and has been taking advantage of the great deals to fly home to Scotland. Mary and I were shopping and, as we walked round the stores, I said to her "What a shame, I forgot that She were going to publish an article about tea time treats in last month's edition. Hmm, maybe we should buy the currrent issue, just in case!"
When we got the July edition home, lo and behold there was the article and the photographer had placed our empire biscuits in the centre of the shot. We were ecstatic. It quickly became a talking point in the coffee shop and, for a few days, there was a buzz in the air in Helensburgh about empire biscuits.
You would have thought that the story would end there, but what happened next was that one of our customers took a copy of the magazine in to the local paper and sang our praises. So, the Helensburgh Advertiser ran an article entitled "The Empire Bites Back" - and this has been picked up by one of the Scottish national newspapers as well!
.... the consequence of all this free publicity has been marvellous; I would never have guessed that the simple act of posting some biscuits to London would generate such a reaction. Many thanks to Charlotte and Monisha at She Magazine for all their help and encouragement.
Here is my recipe:
12 oz Plain Flour
4 oz Caster Sugar
8 oz Butter (slightly softened)
1 egg
Decoration:
Raspberry Jam
Glace Icing
Glace Cherries or Sprinkles
- Preheat your oven - it should be very hot - 200oC
- Place all ingredients in a food processor - and whizz till the mixture forms a paste. I always recommend having the butter quite soft as it isn't so hard on the motor.)
- Place the pastry on a well floured surface and roll out - 1/8" is about right
- Cut out with biscuit cutter.
- Place on lightly greased baking tray and bake till golden brown. It should only take a few minutes, so don't leave them alone!
- When golden, take out of oven and place biscuits on a wire rack to cool.
- Jam together with a good quality jam - I like raspberry for this.
- Cover with plain icing (frosting) and decorate with 1/2 glace cherry or sprinkles.
- Store in an airtight box.
