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Shortbread (No. 2)
¾ pound Five Roses flour ½ pound butter ¼ pound light brown sugar.
Cream butter and sugar, add flour, mixing thoroughly with the hands. Roll not too thin and cut into small-sized cakes with a fork and bake in moderate oven.
A textbook shortbread in the classic Scottish proportion of one part sugar, two parts butter, three parts flour by weight. The instructions assume a cook who has made it before, so the two things left unsaid are the oven temperature and how long.
- The weights in cups¾ lb flour is about 2¾ cups, ½ lb butter is two standard sticks (1 cup), and ¼ lb light brown sugar is about ½ cup lightly packed. Weighing is far more reliable here, since the whole texture depends on the ratio.
- Moderate ovenIn this period 'moderate' generally means somewhere around 350F, though period sources vary from roughly 325F to 375F. Shortbread is more forgiving at the lower end, which lets the centre dry out before the edges colour; either way it should finish pale, not golden brown.
- How longNo time is given, and no thickness beyond 'not too thin'. Rolled to about ⅜ inch, small cakes should take roughly 20 to 25 minutes. They are done when the surface looks matte and dry and the undersides are barely tan — they firm up as they cool and will seem underbaked in the pan.