Justin brought home this antique wooden shortbread mould this week. It was only fair that it got tested out for quality control purposes before going on sale in our shop!

I’d made Scottish shortbread biscuits a couple of times recently and they don’t last very long chez H is for Home!

I normally use Delia Smith’s recipe where she uses semolina for a bit of a crunch, but I thought I’d try the one in the Great Big Cookie Book which uses cornflour, not semolina, and very pretty moulds that make rounds imprinted with a thistle.

There are lots of different variations – wholemeal flour, rice flour, oatmeal flour… you won’t go far wrong so long as you stick to the ratio of one part sugar, two parts butter and three parts flour. If you’d like to try the recipe I used, the instructions are below:

Mmmmmm… shortbread petticoat tails with a mug of tea. I think we may just have to keep the mould!

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Scottish Shortbread

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Ingredients

  

• 175 g/6oz/¾ cup plain flour
• 50 g/2oz/½ cup cornflour
• 50 g/2oz/¼ caster sugar plus extra for sprinkling
• 115 g/4oz/½ cup unsalted butter chopped

Instructions

 

• Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas mark 3. Lightly flour the mould and line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper
• Sift the flour, cornflour and sugar into a mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour & sugar mixture until it binds together and you can knead it into a soft dough
• Place the dough into the mould and press to fit neatly (I went over it a couple of times with a rolling pin). Invert the mould on to the baking sheet and tap firmly to release the dough shape (I had to give mine a big old bang on our kitchen table!)
• Bake for 35-40 minutes, until pale golden in colour
• Sprinkle the top of the shortbread with a little caster sugar and cool on a baking sheet
• Cut the larger rounds into ‘petticoat tails’ while still warm