Shortbread is incredibly easy to bake from scratch in under an hour, as long as you have the right recipe.
There is nothing better than crumbly shortbread paired with a toasty cup of tea, and it is the perfect sweet to have as a treat. It only takes 15 minutes to prepare and roughly 30 minutes to bake in the oven.
Mary Berry has explained how to make this tasty “traditional” Scottish biscuit with just five ingredients but has one secret to making it even more delicious.
She wrote: “I like to use semolina to give the shortbread crunch, but if you haven’t got any you can use corn flour instead.”
Semolina gives a pleasant crunch to the shortbread as well as having a slightly nutty and sweet flavour, which compliments the buttery richness of the biscuit.
READ MORE: Mary Berry’s coffee cake recipe has an ‘extra special’ baking method
Instructions
Before you begin, take your butter out of the fridge and leave it to leave room temperature. It should be soft when pressed with a finger.
Next, lightly grease the tin and line with baking paper, then grease the paper. Preheat the oven to 160C or Gas Mark 3.
Place the flour, caster sugar, butter and semolina into a food processor and mix until the ingredients are well combined and come together like a dough.
If you do not have a food processor, this can also be done by hand. Simply place the flour and butter in a bowl first and rub it together with your hands. Once combined, add the sugar and semolina and keep rubbing until it forms into a dough.
Press the dough into the prepared tin and use the back of a spatula to keep the surface even. Sprinkle the top of the biscuit with demerara sugar.
Bake for roughly 30 to 40 minutes until the shortbread is a pale golden colour and cooked through. Keep an eye on it in the oven to make sure it does not become brown and overcooked.
Once ready, take it out of the oven and leave it to cool in the baking tin for a few minutes.
Cut into around 30 fingers in the tin using a knife then carefully lift them out and place on a wire rack to completely cool down.
Your delicious buttery shortbread is now ready to serve. Store any remaining in an airtight tin to keep it fresh.
