Anne’s Shortbread Biscuit Recipe*

The story of shortbread begins with the medieval “biscuit bread”. Any leftover dough from bread making was dried out in a low oven until it hardened into a type of rusk: the word “biscuit” means “twice cooked”. Gradually the yeast in the bread was replaced by butter, and biscuit bread developed into shortbread.

Shortbread was an expensive luxury and for ordinary people, shortbread was a special treat reserved just for special occasions such as weddings, Christmas and New Year. In Shetland it was traditional to break a decorated shortbread cake over the head of a new bride on the threshold of her new home. The custom of eating shortbread at New Year has its origins in the ancient pagan Yule Cakes that symbolised the sun. In Scotland it is still traditionally offered to “first footers” at New Year.

Shortbread has been attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots, who in the mid-16th century was said to be very fond of Petticoat Tails, a thin, crisp, buttery shortbread originally flavoured with caraway seeds.

So, this is the origin of Shortbread but an old Scottish Lady, from Aberdeen, gave me this recipe, she has been using it for decades. When our friends visited from the USA, I made some and they really enjoyed it. There are now a number of our USA friends making this recipe.

Ingredients
250g butter (I used unsalted)
125g sugar
125g rice flour
312g flour (plain)

Oven at 200C (400F) for 10mn and reduce the temperature to 150C (300F)

Method
Cream the butter (soft) and the sugar together. Add the flour and mix well (it will not form a dough but that is fine)

Press in either a lined tin or a loose bottom tin (I used a square tin measuring 24cm x 34 cm or 9.5in x 13.5in but you could also use round tins or any shape you like)

Bake for 10mn in a pre-heated over at 200C, after 10mn, reduce the temperature to 150C. I cooked mine for 25mn but I expect this will differ with different ovens. Just check it and take it out when it looks slightly golden.

This shortbread recipe can be eaten as is or you can use it to make Millionaire Shortbread. Here is what I did to transform it into Millionaire Shortbread

Millionaire Shortbread

Unlike the Scottish Shortbread, the origin of Millionaire Shortbread is unknown. Some say that it was first seen in a recipe book in Australia!

It has a lot of different names such as caramel biscuit, caramel shortbread etc.

Ingredients
One slab of shortbread
1 tin of sweetened condensed milk (397g)
150g butter
150g dark brown sugar
200g dark chocolate (I use a high cacao content chocolate)

Put the butter and sugar in a pan on a low heat to melt stirring all the time. When they are melted, add the condensed milk and bring to the boil, stirring all the time to ensure it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

I cooked it for about 2 to 3 minutes until it thickened.
Pour over the cool shortbread. I moved the tin around to get the shortbread covered with the caramel.

Leave to cool and set.

Melt the chocolate (I do mine in the microwave at the lowest heat setting, I check it every minute to ensure it does not burn) It usually takes about 4 to 5 minutes depending on the chocolate.

Spread the chocolate onto the caramel and put in the fridge to set

Cut into very small pieces as it can be very sickly and sweet but it is very nice!

By: Brigitte Kershaw

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