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Petticoat Tails
1/2 lb. (I cup) butter 6 ozs. (3/4 cup) sugar I beaten egg 1 tablespoonful cream I lb. (4 cups) flour Cream the butter and sugar together thoroughly in a basin, add the egg, cream and flour very gradually. Turn out on a floured baking board, knead until smooth, and roll out into a large round. Cut out a small round from the center, then divide the remaining portion into eight pieces. Pinch the edges, mark all over with a fork, and lay on a buttered baking tin.
Bake in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes. "Cry-Babies" are tearful-looking, soft, rich ginger cakes "Love Wells" are small, dainty, round cakes very suitable for wedding or engagement parties. The centers hold sweet red-currant jelly and pistachio nuts ११ "Irresistibles are well named and are favorites. These are made of sponge or layer cake mixture, almond paste, strawberry jam, whipped cream and nut meats Cakes These small shortbreads of Scotland which go by the name of Petticoat Tails have a connection with a royal personage, for it is commonly believed that Mary, Queen of Scots, brought from France the recipe "petits gateaux tailés," which name soon became corrupted to petticoat tails.
A plain Scottish shortbread in the classic 1:2:4 proportion of sugar, butter and flour, shaped as a wheel of eight wedges around a cut-out center. The dough is stiff and short, so handling matters more than anything else here.
- Work the dough as little as possible"Knead until smooth" means a few presses to bring the crumbs together, not a bread kneading. Overworking develops gluten and the shortbread turns hard rather than crisp and sandy.
- Weigh the flourA pound of flour is called 4 cups here; by modern scoop-and-level measure a pound is nearer 3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups. Use the weights (8 oz butter, 6 oz sugar, 16 oz flour) and the dough will behave.
- Basin and baking tinA basin is simply a mixing bowl. The buttered baking tin is a flat sheet, not a pan with deep sides; a parchment-lined sheet works better than butter, since this dough needs no help sticking.
- Moderate ovenRead that as 325-350F. Shortbread should barely color, so the lower end is safer with a thick round.
- Fifteen minutes is shortThe recipe gives no thickness. Rolled thin, fifteen minutes is about right; at 1/2 inch or more allow 25-35 minutes, until the surface is dry and the edges are pale gold, since underbaked shortbread tastes raw and pasty.
- Cut the wedges before baking, separate afterMark and divide the round on the board, then bake the pieces slightly apart. If you prefer to bake it as one wheel, score deeply while raw and break along the lines while still warm.
- Docking with a forkThe fork marks are traditional decoration, and they also give steam a way out so the round is less likely to puff in the middle.
- Yield and keepingOne pound of flour makes a large round: eight generous wedges plus the center disc. Cool completely on a rack, then store airtight, where it keeps a week and improves for a day or two.
Petticoat tails are one of the oldest named forms of Scottish shortbread, always cut as a wheel of wedges around a hole where the round was set over an inverted bowl or cut with a cup. The book repeats the traditional story that Mary, Queen of Scots, carried the French petits gateaux tailles home to Scotland and that the name was corrupted in Scots mouths; the tale is commonly told but not documented, and etymologists more often connect the name to the shape of the wedges, which match the gores of a bell-hoop petticoat. The proportions in the recipe are the standard shortbread rule of one part sugar to two of butter to four of flour, and the egg and spoonful of cream here are a slight enrichment on the older three-ingredient version. It sits among the pudding and cake pages of a novelty-dish collection.