Winter is a time to indulge, and there is no cosier feeling than dunking a homemade biscuit in a cup of tea while the weather is cold and dreary outside. Many people believe baking takes a lot of effort, but making traditional Scottish shortbread is actually very easy as long as you have the right recipe.
Mary Berry, Britain’s favourite cook, has revealed her own shortbread takes minutes to prepare and is incredibly tasty as she uses semolina in the mixture. In her cookbook ‘My Kitchen Table: 100 Cakes and Bakes’, Mary said: “For a really good shortbread it is essential to use butter. I like to use semolina as well as flour to give the shortbread crunch, but you can use cornflour or ground rice instead.”
Semolina is a type of flour commonly used to make bread and pasta, but it is also added to shortbread because it enhances the buttery flavour and gives the biscuit a richer taste.
It is often used to bake biscuits because semolina is less absorbent than regular flour, which helps the shortbread hold its shape while it bakes in the oven.
This results in tender shortbread that is slightly crumbly rather than chewy, and it will have that melt-in-your-mouth texture that makes this biscuit perfect with a cup of tea.
Shortbread is ideal to bake at this time of year, when people are spending more evenings indoors. However, it is also a delightful way to impress holiday guests you have over and could also make a charming personalised gift for a loved one this Christmas.
How to make Mary Berry’s shortbread
You will need:
225g of plain flour100g of semolina225g of butter100g of caster sugar25g of demerara sugar (for dusting)50g almond flakes (optional for decorating)
Method:
To begin, preheat your oven to 160 (Fan 140 or Gas Mark 3), and then lightly grease a baking tray. The one Mary Berry uses is 20 centimetres to 23 centimetres in size.
Add the flour and semolina to a bowl and mix together. Next, add the butter and sugar, then rub the mixture together until it begins to bind together.
Keep rubbing the mixture together and then knead it light until it forms into a dough. Press the dough into a prepared tray and then use the back of a spatula to smooth is over.
Then, use a fork to prick the dough all over, and then sprinkle on the almond flakes if you wish to use them. Place in the oven and bake for 35 minuted until they are a pale golden brown colour. Once ready take them out, sprinkle the demerara sugar on them and then leave them to cool in the tray for five minutes.
Once the time is up, cut the biscuits into 30 fingers and your buttery shortbread will be a lot tastier than ones at the supermarket.
