my friend's mother's scottish shortbread cookie

How To Make my friend's mother's scottish shortbread cookie

• 1

  Cream the butter and sugar; if you use a food processor, taking the butter out of the fridge doesn't matter-it just takes a little longer to cream.
• 2

  Work in the flour. Again, if using a food processor, bung in about 11 oz of the flour, work that in and then bung in the rest.
• 3

  Plop the whole blob (even if some is still not worked in) onto your work surface and finish the working in by kneading until it just starts to stick a little. (Sometimes people, like my ancient and now deceased cousin Isabel, woffle on about not handling it very long as it will make the shortbread tough. Rubbish I say. Carry on and knead all you want. It's fun and therapeutic if you're a bit irritated about something)
• 4

  Put the lump of dough into your greased-with-the-butter-paper pan, and squish it over the pan with your fingers. Then smooth it out. Merle found out a spoon works the best after I'd been using a knife for years, just because that's how my mother used to do it. Then, with a fork (no Merle refinements on that one) prick it all over and make any twinky little patterns you like.
• 5

  As far as temperature goes, the recipe of my grandmother works fine. Bake at 350 for 1/2 hour; turn down to 275 and give another 1/2 to 3/4 hour until golden brown. The thing is to leave it in there long enough to cook it without burning it (guilty on several occasions).
• 6

  Cut when warm, or you're in trouble. Cool before taking out of the pan, or you're in trouble again.
• 7

  NOTE: To approximate the "caster sugar" (which is a very fine granule sugar) put into food processor, and process on high for about 1 minute.
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