Our Gardening and Cooking Journal, Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Up at 05:30 and what a horrible looking day all wet and cold can this be August?

Watered and fed all the plants the tumbling tom reds are showing more about to turn red but the moneymakers aren’t.

In the kitchen this morning testing an old recipe of Aunt Mary Glen’s (Uncle James’ wife) for shortbread and I am very pleased with it one batch has made 18 six to seven inch biscuits so I think half a dozen or so will be sent in the next parcel to Daniel in Afghanistan. I do wish you could smell the shortbread baking it is a real house seller aroma.

Here is the recipe for the shortbread it is also on Mydish and will at sometime appear on the Big-Oven website, if you try it please leave a comment so I get to know how you all like these recipes.

That’s all for today have a good day and if you are cooking why not let us know what you are cooking.

AUNT MARY GLEN’S SHORTBREAD
A Rich, Light Golden Colour And So Buttery How Can One Resist A Taste Of Scotland In One Or Two Little Biscuits.

Aunt Mary Glen’s shortbread was in our eyes the best in the world and Maureen and meself would always look forward to a visit to Scotland as we knew that the shortbread would be out on offer with a good cup of tea and if I was lucky a glass of Uncle James’ home-brew.

I have had to adapt the recipe from Aunt Mary’s measure to metric and I think I have got it right Aunt Mary when telling me the recipe just use to say “Oh its just a handful or 2 of flour a bit of butter” and so on but why not try it yourself and let me know what you think.

Serves / Makes: 18 to 20 shortbreads

Prep-Time: 10 minutes

Cook-Time: 35 minutes

You Will Need;

200 grams, plain flour

100 grams, cornflour

100 grams, icing sugar

200 grams, butter cut into small pieces

Caster sugar for sprinkling

Method;

Sieve the flours and icing sugar together, add butter and rub in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then knead together to give a stiff dough.

Divide into four and form into rounds about ¼ inch thick onto a lightly floured baking sheet, prick all over and mark into sections with a sharp knife then crimp the edges with thumb and fingers and cook at 160°C/325°F) for about 35 to 40 minutes or until pale golden brown.

Re-mark into sections and leave to cool on baking sheet and then sprinkle with caster sugar.

We almost always use a cookie cutter 2 ½ inch (7cm) to cut individual biscuits after rolling out the dough to a ¼ inch thickness, place them onto a silicone baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes.

To keep store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Serve and Enjoy!

Notes:

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.

This is the sort of silicone base that we use when baking Guaranteed not to stick;