A buttery and delicious shortbread recipe from Mary Berry. The secret ingredient is semolina for that extra crunch! Finish with a sprinkle of demerara sugar. For a shortbread recipe 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. Lightly grease a 30cm x 23cm roasting or traybake tin. Mix together the flour and semolina in a bowl or food processor. Add the butter and sugar and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture is just beginning to bind together.
Knead lightly until the mixture forms a smooth dough. Press the dough into the prepared tin and level it with the back of a spatula or a palette knife, making sure the mixture is evenly spread. Prick all over with a fork, sprinkle over the flaked almonds if using, and chill until firm. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a very pale golden brown. Sprinkle with demerara sugar and leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then cut into 30 fingers.
Carefully lift the fingers out of the tin with a palette knife and finish cooling on a wire rack. 1995 – 2021 Penguin Books Ltd. Registered office: 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, SW1V 2SA UK. Get our latest recipes, features, book news and ebook deals straight to your inbox every Friday. By clicking Submit, I consent to you using my details to send me The Happy Foodie newsletters, and confirm I have read and understood Penguin Random House’s Privacy Policy.
We’d love to pop into your email inbox every Friday with inspiring recipes from Penguin’s world-leading cookery writers, the latest cookbook releases, ebook deals and more. Southern-cuisine expert and cookbook author Diana Rattray has created more than 5,000 recipes and articles in her 20 years as a food writer. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. Traditional Scottish shortbread consists of only three ingredients: butter, flour, and salt. It is its simplicity but also the buttery flavor that makes it so popular all around the world, year-round, as an everyday treat or for holidays such as Christmas and Easter.