Sweet Scotland – Shortbread

Whether you call them biscuits or cookies, you can always call them delicious!  If I had only one kind of cookie I could have for the rest of my life, I believe this would be the one.  I am confident my dear chum Jackie would say it would be hers 🙂

It seems appropriate to close out this week in celebration of Scotland and all things Scottish with an authentic recipe for Scottish Shortbread.  Our chum Wendy (who is also my cousin) got this wonderful recipe from her mother-in-law, Mae Reynolds.  Reynolds was her married name, she was born a McGrath, that being her maiden name.   Mae was the first of her family born here…number 7 of 8 children.  The others were all born in Glasgow, Scotland, so I can only imagine that this great shortbread recipe is one her mother brought with her from Scotland when she came to America and handed it down to her daughter, Mae, who gave it to her daughter-in-law, Wendy, who has now shared it with us.  Isn’t it great to have “chums”?   They always bring love, joy and abundance to our lives.  And in this case, the added bonus of a recipe for the best shortbread you’ll ever eat!

Mae’s Scottish Shortbread

2 cups flour (all-purpose, but you can use a GF all purpose flour if needed)

1/2 lb. butter, softened

1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar

This shortbread is simple to make.  As you can plainly see even a child can do it 🙂

Mix all ingredients well.  You can use a mixer but Mae used her hands.  The warmth of your hands actually helps to incorporate the butter into the flour/sugar mixture.  After you have thoroughly mixed the butter with the flour and sugar, turn the dough onto a lightly floured board and knead the dough.  When you have finished kneading, divide the dough into 2 balls.

Flatten the balls with the palm of your hand.  This will make two 6.5″ x 1″ round cookies.  Use a fork to score the edges as you would with a pie crust, then pierce the rounds with a fork to mark wedges that can be broken or cut into pieces after baking.

These are known as Petticoat Tails.  The rounds take about an hour to bake in a 300 degree oven. Watch them closely as they brown easily, especially in about the last 10 minutes of cooking, and you do NOT want them to brown.

Now make a pot of tea, and as Mae wrote on the recipe card she shared …”Enjoy”!