Shortbread- that crumbles and melts in your mouth

Hello again!

So, I thought it was time I posted about shortbread!

To me, it is like the unbeatable biscuit that you'll always come back to. Sure you might go through periods of stuffing your face with those chocolate tempters. Those custard manipulators. Even those seasonal biscuits that only appear in the festive time of year. But it is the shortbread, the biscuit that always stands by you and is there for you, that is the very biscuit you will always be happy to see and go back to.

What with its sugar dusted outer, its crumbly texture and its soft and melt in the mouth inner. From every stage, it is a pleasure to make and eat!

I've made shortbread many times before, but this is a new recipe that I'm trying out. It sounds and looks pretty promising, ingredients and texture wise so far. But we'll see...

The ingredients that you will be needing are;

This is a YouTube recipe.

- 250g Butter, that is soft
- 65g Caster Sugar

Put this into a mixer and whisk until creamed together, softened and a much lighter colour and smooth texture.

- 355g Plain Flour
- 16g Corn Flour

Mix this in a bowl until combined together

Once the butter and sugar are combined and a light and fluffy colour and texture, add the flour mix. Mix this in the mixer with the paddle attachment until it just becomes crumbly and starts to clump.

At this stage, take it over to a clean counter and tip the mixture out. Bring the crumbs together and work it to form it into one, smooth ball.

Knead this dough until it become smooth, isn't sticky anymore.

Flatten this out into either a circular shape, or rectangular shape with a rolling pin to ensure it stays even. Roll it out until it is as thick as two little fingers on top of each other in height. 3cm maybe.

Plop this onto a sheet of baking paper on a tray and squish together any cracks that have formed.

If it is rectangular, cut this into rectangles and if it is circular little triangles. Do this by taking a sharp knife and whilst not cutting all the way down, imprint the dough so it knows where it will be cut when baked. You are pre-cutting it if you will.

Then prick each piece with a fork all the way down the slice.

Time to chill. Pop this into the fridge to allow the butter to harden. This will make sure it doesn't melt when baking. It would melt if you put it in the oven right away as the butter would be too soft.

After 30 minutes or however long you needed to do something else. I needed an hour as I made the Pavlova beforehand and it needed to sit in the residual heat of the oven and cool down with it for an hour. So, what can you do?

Once chilled, sprinkle sugar over the shortbread before baking and then pop into a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes until light golden brown and paler on the inside.

It'll look raw coming out and you'll say to yourself  ' Hey man! This is way too short a cooking time, the bread of the short is still super soft and squishy? Bhaaa!'

It'll harden and set as it cools so don't be worrying! (:

Re-cut the shortbread in the tin, where you pre-cut it and leave to cool in the tin.

And that is it!

Hope you enjoyed this!?

Thanks