Shortbread

Let's make shortbread today! This is one of the very first recipe's I ever looked up and attempted and good -lord- did the recipe make it difficult to make! Here's what we need:

1 1/2 cups plain flour
150 or 2/3rds cup of butter (not margarine, the 'bad for you' stuff)
1/3 cup cornflour
1/3 cup caster sugar (plus extra to sprinkle)
1 tsp vanilla essense
1/2 tsp baking powder.

Now the recipe I looked up goes on about beating butter and sugar until light and fluffy with a mixer, add flours, baking powder and vanilla essense and beat some more until combined and resembling fine breadcrumbs. Estimated time lapse (using a hand mixer) 20-40 minutes and you will be TIRED at the end of it.

Ignore this. I picked up a trick from making an apple pie. Dump everything into the bowl at once, and get in there with your hands. Yes. Hands. Up to the elbows in flour! Massage the mixture, spreading the cold bits of butter through the powder, it is -much- easier to break it up into the bread-crumby looking texture, and, it is a lot more fun. Estimated time: 10 - 15 minutes. And you want to do it again because you get to throw flour around. Seriously.

Put baking paper in a loose bottomed tart pan (18cm or so as a guide, but not 'strict') press it down evenly ish over the pan with your hands protected by another layer of baking paper. Put it in the fridge for 30 minutes or so, for the butter to set in the crumbs. While you're waiting for this to settle down, preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius.

Take out your now firmer raw shortbread, sprinkle with a bit of caster sugar for added sweetness if you desire, and then put it into the oven to bake for 30 minutes or until a nice golden hue.

I felt like chocolate chip biscuits, so I made chocolate chip shortbread. Exact same thing as seen above, but with around quarter to half a cup of chocolate chip bits tossed in at the very end and mixed through. Add more, or less as you desire. Either way, the end result is delicious!