May 6, 2011
Monty here. POW is MIA. Actually, he is on walkabout Stateside, so Jean asked me to step in again. I am upstairs, as you can see. HM and I are having a Royal Taste Test:
Jean's tasty, buttery, crumbly sweetum Shortbread Bikkies vs. POW's Duchy Original Organic Shortbread. (Just because Camilla went on Eastenders and shilled for him does not mean they are a tasty bikky...) We even had to send a lady-in-waiting out to Waitrose to buy a packet of the Duchy Originals - wouldn't you think there would be some in the kitchen? Cook was very obliging and outdid herself, we think, with Jean's recipe. Let me know what you think.
Yours,
Monty

Scottish Shortbread for Our Highlanders

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon coarse salt
½ cup confectioners' or granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter or line with parchment paper an 8 ½-inch round cake or spring form pan. Sift flour and salt together in a small bowl. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, cream butter until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar, and continue to beat until very light in color and fluffy. Add the flour mixture, and beat on low, until the dough sticks together when squeezed.

Pat dough into the baking pan. Use a paring knife to score dough into wedges; prick all over in with a wooden skewer or fork. Make a nice, decorative pattern - HM will be judging you.

Bake until firm in the center and just starting to color, about 50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Yumsters. Judging by the few crumbs left by HM, I'd say this is the winner. Sorry, Chuck.

"Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar."
Pablo Picasso