Shortbread biscuits

Shortbread biscuits have a lovely, rich flavour.

 

Shortbread biscuits

Shortbread biscuits have a lovely, rich flavour. They melt in your mouth and have a slightly chewy and crispy texture with a hint of caramel. There’s a lot of butter in these biscuits, and it cannot be substituted with any other type of fat. You must use real quality butter with at least 82% fat. The biscuits are incredibly easy to bake, consisting mainly of three ingredients: flour, butter, and sugar. However, it is recommended to add both salt and vanilla extract. Vanilla extract is the only liquid in the dough, and the flavour from both the vanilla and salt elevates these biscuits to another level. Shortbread biscuits are quintessentially British and are known as shortbread fingers, shortbread biscuits or just shortbread. «Tea and biscuits» are a British institution, and you will understand why these biscuits go so well with tea.

 

This is guaranteed to be one of the best shortbread recipes. After investigating many recipes and testing several, this is the best I have found. The difference mainly lies in the ratio of fat, flour, and sugar in other recipes. In the recipe, the ratio between butter and sugar, and the other ingredients relative to the flour, is given in parentheses. If you want to make a larger or smaller batch, you can multiply the amount of flour by the number in parentheses, and you will get the correct amount of the other ingredients. (For example, if you want to scale up the recipe to 500 g of flour, you multiply 500 by 0.81, which gives 405 g of butter). The recipe makes 36 biscuits of 3.5 x 5 cm.

 

Ingredients

250 g butter (0.81) – good quality with at least 82% fat. If you can find higher fat content, use that.
310 g fine flour (wheat flour/spelt)
180 g finely granulated sugar (0.58)
5 ml vanilla extract (0.0161) / alternatively 2 tsp vanilla sugar in 1 tsp water
5 g salt in total (*see tips on salt in butter) (0.0161)

 

*Tips on salt in butter:

This depends on whether you use unsalted butter or not. Salted butter usually contains about 1 – 1.1% salt, which means there is about 2.5 g of salt in the butter. Then you need to add 2.5 g of salt.

 

Directions:

1. Bring the butter to room temperature. You should be able to press lightly on the butter, and it should give way.
2. Cut the butter into large cubes and put it in a large bowl that can hold all the ingredients.
3. Add sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Use an electric mixer and beat on medium speed until the butter and sugar are well combined. This usually takes 2-3 minutes.
4. Sift in the flour, and use a dough hook, or a wooden spoon if you are mixing by hand. Mix on low speed until the butter and flour are well blended. It is important to avoid overmixing to prevent the gluten from activating. Otherwise, the biscuits will become very chewy and rubbery.
5. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.
6. Use a flat baking tray with low edges measuring 20 x 30 cm. Line the tray with baking paper beforehand. Let the baking paper stick up 2-3 cm around the edges, so it is easier to remove the biscuits when they are done. Place the slightly chilled dough into the tray. This is a fairly loose and soft dough. A good tip is to use plastic wrap, clingfilm or baking paper on top of the dough. Use your hands and a flat object, such as a spatula, to smooth out the dough. Make sure to get the dough as flat as possible and evenly distributed in the tray.
7. Use a fork to prick a longitudinal pattern in the dough in the longest direction of the tray. Make sure to space the pricks as you want the desired biscuit width. Chill the tray in the refrigerator for another 10 minutes.

 

Baking: Preheat the oven to 165°C and place the tray on the bottom rack. Baking time depends on your oven, between 25-32 minutes, until the biscuits are light golden brown on top. NB: Do not overbake.

 

After baking:

1. Remove the tray and place it on a cooling rack.
2. Let them sit for about 4-5 minutes before using a sharp knife to cut them into the desired size. I used 3.5 cm width and 5 cm length, but this depends on what you prefer and what fits in your biscuit tin.
3. Sprinkle lightly with a little sugar if desired.
4. Let the biscuits cool in the tray until completely cold.
5. Lift them carefully using the excess baking paper onto a flat surface. You may need to use a knife again to cut and separate all the biscuits.

 

Storage: In an airtight biscuit tin or plastic container. The biscuits keep well at room temperature for about 10 days.

 

Serving: Tea and shortbread biscuits are quintessentially British, but these biscuits also taste delicious with coffee, cold milk, or enjoyed on their own.

Allergies: Gluten. In reality, lactose-free, as the high fat content means there is very little lactose in the butter. Since the biscuits are so rich, gluten-free flour should work well for a gluten-free version. FODMAP: High FODMAP if you use wheat flour. You will get moderate FODMAP if you use spelt flour. Regardless, these biscuits are small, so even with high FODMAP, many will tolerate them if they stick to one or two biscuits.

---

The main ingredient here is, among other things, butter. Read more about butter and its history: Butter