Shortbread biscuits make my mouth water!

I do love short bread, but I have also come to dislike it quite a lot too! (more on that in Part 2 tomorrow!)

Last week Beau, Darcey and I made a load of vanilla cookies to give as Christmas gifts. One was for our brilliant postie. He’s great and since going freelance in March I now have a lot of  heavy post including four magazine subscriptions Tim also has two, tons of press releases, books to review and products to test, so we keep him really busy and fit.

When he delivers he normally opens the porch door to drop the pile of post inside, so we left his tip and the cookies in that spot for him to find on his early morning rounds. The problem was that the post that day was just small letters and was put through the letterbox. The gift was still there waiting in the evening. And the same thing happened the next day! Then it was Christmas and there was no post for days and the vanilla cookies were not going to taste their best! So we have made him these shortbread biscuits instead.

Beau and Darcey are currently sitting by the living room window looking out for him as I type, so that we don’t miss him again!

Ingredients

225g Plain flour

100g Semolina

225g butter (at room temperature)

100g Caster Sugar

30g granulated sugar

To make the shortbread biscuits

Line baking tins with baking paper and set aside in the fridge. Heat the oven to 160°C, Fan 140°C, Gas Mark 3.

Measure out the butter and sugar into your mixing bowl and sift the flour and semolina into another bowl.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light in colour.

Add the dry ingredients and blend again.

Continue to mix until the dough is formed and comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for an hour in the fridge.

Knead the dough as little as possible then roll it out. Use some plain flour to stop it sticking. Cut out your biscuits and give them a little space on the baking tin the shortbread will spread a little bit.

Use a fork to make holes to ensure that the biscuits cook right through. This method is usually for when you bake one large biscuit to be cut up later in a cake tin and the shortbread is much thicker, but I liked the pattern it made with the cookie cutter.

Sprinkle sugar over the cookies.This will almost disappear on the shortbread but adds to the look and taste! I used granulated but you can use brown, cinnamon or Demerara sugar too.

Pop the shortbread cookies in the oven for 20 minutes or until they are a pale golden brown colour. Then remove from the oven and leave for a few minutes before transferring them onto a rack to cool completely. Try to resist eating them whilst still hot. I can’t! I love them straight out of the oven!

We placed the cooled shortbread into a zip-lock bag so that they were air tight (they need to be kept in an air tight container and also should be eaten within 2 days – this shouldn’t be a problem!) and then placed them into a paper gift bag tied with ribbon and mini baubles. I know Christmas is over but better late than never!  I hope he likes them!

More shortbread fun tomorrow!

Enjoy!