Surprisingly, I’ve never made shortbread from scratch. Being of Irish heritage, one might assume I had a long history with the treat. The other day my husband tasted a piece of packaged shortbread for the first time, and he fell in love. I set about finding a decent Irish shortbread recipe, and found the following at Irish Culture and Customs:

Grandma’s Irish Shortbread

2 cups butter

1 cup brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

4 cups flour

 

Bring butter to room temperature. Preheat oven to 300° F. Cream the butter until it is the consistency of whipped cream. Beat in the sugar. Add salt. Add flour in 4 portions (one cup at a time) mixing well after each addition. Turn out onto a floured board and pat or roll to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shape desired with a cookie cutter. Place on an un-greased cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Sounds simple, no? The ingredients are basic (I decreased the brown sugar to ¾ cup and increased cooking time to 30 minutes), but the recipe has no liquids to speak of. By the time I added the fourth cup of flour, I felt like I was stirring concrete. I started out with my electric hand mixer, but the beaters became clogged in short order. My husband stepped in and mixed the final dough, and then I baked two batches. I shaped shortbread “fingers” for most of the treats, but also used a little duck cookie cutter on some of the dough.

 

Homemade Irish shortbread tastes even better than the packaged variety, and goes nicely with a hot cup of tea or coffee. I also like almond biscotti dipped in coffee, but the shortbread wins hands down.