386664 Fri Mar 30 12:41:52 -0700 2007 6 31 Home Cooking 0 2435691 Okay, you've done it now...I'm heading to the kitchen to bake myself a batch of shortbread! I have a recipe i got from a little cookbook I bought in Scotland about 30 years ago--couldn't be simpler, or more yummy... 1/2 cup flour, sifted 1/4 cup rice flour 1/4 cup superfine sugar 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 cup butter, softened Combine flours, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Work in butter until dough has the consistency of shortcrust. Sprinkle board with rice flour. Turn dough onto board and knead until smooth. Divide into four portions and shape into small rounds. Place on greaseproof paper in a baking tin/ Prick with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, until cakes begin to brown slightly. Allow to cool in tin. Fri Mar 30 10:23:18 -0700 2007 27327 MsMaryMc 1 2435796 Hi Ms. Mary, Thanks for the recipe! A couple of questions: It's different from what I expected that these cookies go into the oven as little balls. You do not flatten them first? As I said, I've never made shortbread but I've often seen shortbread metal molds where one presses the dough out flat in them to a thickness of maybe 1/3". That the recipe is so simple that they don't do anything like rise or spread out - or maybe they would spread if not for the sides of the mold. SO, if you leave them as little balls, what diameter would you have them be, and how thick/wide does the cookie eventually become? Also, I've never heard of cooling a cookie in a tin before. Do you cover them with the top? I would be afraid moisture would condense as they cooled. Fri Mar 30 10:54:39 -0700 2007 2435691 23824 niki rothman 2 2436012 Niki that is pretty much the standard recipe. Do not neglect the rice flour or substitute cornstarch for it. The rice flour is essential to the crumb. Sometimes, like yesterday when I made a batch I patted the dough out into a 9" sq. cake pan and scored it when it came put of the oven and was still hot. It will break apart more evenly if you do that. At Christmastime i kindo of roll/pat the dough out and cut it into stars. The recipe I orig. sent you wanted it is a springform pan to cut wedges known as patticoat tails. Once you have the dough it is up to you. But if you are going to form it and bake it in a pan always score all the way through and allow to cool. Fri Mar 30 11:47:48 -0700 2007 2435796 10285 Candy 2 2437517 Actually, I when i started making this, I'd leave the whole recipe in one portion and press it flat (maybe 1/2" thick) and circular on a cookie sheet. It wouldn't expand very much, either up or out. I would score it before baking. Then I got a ceramic shortbread pan, which holds double this recipe. It scores the cookies into petticoat tails and imprints a slight pattern of Scottish thistles--very pretty! I think the tin they're referring to is just a baking pan, no lid involved (the cookbook is Scottish...it's that "two peoples divided by a common language" thing.) As Candy says, the rice flour is essential--it gives such a lovely, crumbly texture. Most grocery stores that have a section with specialty flours will have it there. Really good European-style butter makes a difference, too. Fri Mar 30 20:07:34 -0700 2007 2435796 27327 MsMaryMc 3 2437618 msmarymc--where did you find the pan, please? Fri Mar 30 20:59:27 -0700 2007 2437517 11234 toodie jane 4 2438390 I got it from a vendor at the Highland Games, held every summer near Seattle (big fun, even if you're not Scots--great shopping, tasty meat pies, bagpipes, and big burly men in kilts...what's not to love?) But these folks sell them online: http://www.gaelsong.com/ Sat Mar 31 10:32:04 -0700 2007 2437618 27327 MsMaryMc 1 2436531 Do you know if you can make these in a stone shortbread pan? Fri Mar 30 13:41:59 -0700 2007 2435691 39874 chowser