Advent Photos 2021. December 16th and Shortbread

First of all must say thank you to everyone for comments over the last two days that I've failed miserably at replying to for no good reason that I can think of.

Anyway onto today's post..................

Why do the shops sell more shortbread at Christmas than any other time of the year?

Shortbread originated in Scotland and was expensive to make, so was often given as a gift at Hogmany and weddings. The idea might have first come from French pastry chefs when Scotland and France were often allies. 

According to wiki the first printed recipe, in 1736, was from a Scotswoman named Mrs McLintock. In my book 'Christmas Fare' by Judith Holder and Alison Harding they include a recipe from a 19C cookery book by a Mrs Dalgairn which includes 'caraway comfits' (sugared caraway seeds) and then 50 years later the more well known English cook Eliza Atkins gives a recipe for 'Good Scottish Shortbread' which was remarkably similar to Mrs Dalgairn's ..........

With one pound of flour mix well two ounces of sifted sugar and one of candied orange-rind or citron sliced small; make these into a paste with from eight to nine ounces of good butter, made sufficiently warm to be liquid; press the paste together with the hands and mould it upon tins into large cakes 1 inch thick, pinch the edges, and bake in a moderate oven for twenty minutes, or longer should it not be quite crisp, but do not allow it to become deeply coloured.

 Another recipe included in 'Christmas Fare' is said to come from Ayrshire and is a rich shortbread using cream and eggs and no peel and was always made into a round and cut into 'petticoat tails'. So named because of their shape or maybe a corruption of the French petits galettes  - little cakes.

photo from internet

For years I had a recipe for Shortbread given to me by Great Aunt Ann, who I think was originally from Scotland. It used a mix of flour and cornflour along with butter and castor/icing sugar - but somewhere in the last 20 years that recipe disappeared from my folder to be replaced by a recipe from the lady who made shortbread biscuits every week for the WI Country Market in Framlingham. Wish I hadn't lost that old recipe as it was made by pressing the mix into a round tin whereas the more recent has to be rolled into a cylinder shape, chilled and then sliced - more fiddly.

This is the WI recipe, very traditional and using only 3 ingredients in 3:2:1 ratio

9oz Plain Flour

6oz Butter

3oz castor sugar

Mix until it forms a ball, gently form the ball into a cylinder shape, wrap in cling film and chill in fridge for ½ hour. Slice into thin rounds, lay on non stick paper on baking sheet then preheated oven 160℃ for 5 minutes, then 1 minute at a time watching closely until just beginning to colour - don't let them brown.

 

 I like shortbread, preferring them to any other biscuits and the bought ones are often made from the basics without any weird added ingredients. I bought some to pop in the cupboard, just in case, not in the specially made Christmas tins, but just in the normal cardboard box packaging.

 

They come with a bit of history.................. Although Paterson's have been taken over by Burtons and probably no longer even made in Scotland.

 

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue