Everybody Loves Shortbread....

...don't they? I do, give me a tartan tin of it and I'm a happy boy (to be fair, a tin of pretty much anything keeps me happy). When I began baking a few months ago shortbread was the first thing I made, and it was a bit of a disaster. I rolled the pastry quite thinly, meaning when the biscuits spread in the oven they were more like crunchy biscuits instead of thick, crumbly shortbread.

So, round two. I looked at a few recipes and I think I've cracked it. Firstly, the butter (200grms). Very soft, and I gave it a good old beat before I added any sugar, so it looked like this

Next I added 100 grms of vanilla sugar in about 4 batches, making sure each batch is well beaten. Normal castor sugar would do just as well. then once its all well beaten in, it should look pale, creamy and fluffy.

Now, there's a number of differing views about what you should add next, all are in agreement that it shouldn't just be flour, but should you add ground rice, or rice flour, or semolina? Well, I use semolina, simply because it's all they had in the first shop i went to, and it seems to work well (adding either of these gives the biscuits a nice, crumbly texture). so stir in 260gm of plain flour, 40gm of semolina and a good pinch of salt. gently bring it all together until it just begins to form a ball, then turn it out, roll into a sausage, about 20cm long, wrap tightly in cling-film and chill for 30 minutes, until nice and firm.

Once its nice and firm slice it into about 20 pieces, then place on a greased baking tray and bake for 20 minutes or so at 170c, until golden and firm (you'll probably have to do this in two batches, unless you've got a massive oven. I then dipped them in chocolate and toasted almonds, but to be honest I doubt I'll do this again, they're better plain, but William liked them anyway!