Shortbread - My Mum's Recipe

Lent is upon us once again. But, everyone knows that you can break your Lent on a Sunday.

And when you break your Lent, you need to do it in style. Forget a few squares of chocolate, you need something amazing.

Enter shortbread.

Shortbread is amazing. Shortbread also eluded me for many years. My mum makes amazing shortbread, and I basically rooted through her recipes until I found it this Christmas. Sharing is fun.

I think they key is the cornflour, it gives it a beautiful “snap” and makes the biscuit deliciously crumbly and crunchy.  The butter is incredible. It’s all working. AND it got the seal of approval from my little godson on Christmas day (he had one in his mouth and one in each hand and was anxiously checking the box to see how many were left).

Apart from being gorgeous and buttery and delicious AND easy to make, its also a fairly versatile recipe. I’ve made it with just plain sugar topping, with lemon zest in the biscuits, and (a personal favourite) with chocolate chips in the dough!

Makes about 18 medium sized biscuits or 30 small ones

Ingredients for the biscuits

• 185g butter
• 85g caster sugar
• 200g plain flour
• 50g cornflour
• Pinch salt

To finish

• 50g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Method

Cream the butter and the sugar.

Add in the flour, cornflour and salt and mix well, you’ll need to get your hands in to get it all mixed through well.

Press  down into the bowl until all tightly packed and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Halve the shortbread mixture, and arrange on a floured surface.

Roll out to approx. 1.5cm thick and cut out into whatever shape you like.

Cook for 12-15 minutes until golden, and place on a wire rack to cool.

Mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle on top of the still-hot shortbread.

Eat! Or place in a tin/tupperware to give to friends.