I have such fond memories of shortbread as a child visiting my Granny – memories that have continued on as tradition to this day. The only difference is over the years there has been an increase in the flavour offerings available in shops, so we have gone from simple and plain shortbread fingers to what is now one of my favourites, all butter sultana shortbread.
After playing around with different butter and flour ratios, I’ve now got the recipe to place I’m really happy with. And the family are delighted too, we have to keep them out of sight of my young son or he wouldn’t eat anything else! Although he does get the occasional treat and I love seeing his cheeky smile as he takes a bite… and our dog Lewy is guaranteed a little taste as the crumbs inevitable fall on the floor!
I’ve posted a recipe and images below of my recent bake at Christmas time but these are a constant throughout the year in our house and equally tasty cut in to squares, fingers, or circles – whatever you fancy!
Christmas All Butter Sultana Shortbread
Buttery and crumbly yet firm. Sweet and comforting, perfect with a nice cup of tea during the colder months. Nice and easy recipe, taking around 30 minutes from start to finish.
Ingredients
- 250 g Unsalted Butter
- 50 g Caster Sugar
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 350 g Plain All Purpose Flour
- 160 g Sultanas
- ½ tsp Salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until it resembles a butter cream. It should look light and fluffy whilst retaining a slight gritty texture from the sugar. I normally do this by hand with a whisk as I like the mix to remain a bit coarse for my shortbread.
- Weigh out your flour in a bowl before adding in and mixing the salt and sultanas.
- Gradually add the flour, salt and sultana mix to your butter cream. You can mix this by hand, or with an electric mixer if you have one.
- Once all of the flour is added in and mixed it should come together in the middle of the bowl. There may be some loose bits of crumble surrounding this.
- Time to get in with your hands if you haven't already. Bring together any stragglers and press and compact the mix together to form one big doughball.
- Lightly dust your work surface with some flour. Remove the doughball from the bowl and press it down to form a a flat circle around 2cm thick (don't worry too much about the accuracy of this, we're going to flatten it further).
- Dust your rolling pin with flour and roll out until you have a large circle which is now around ½ cm in thickness.
- If your dough is soft and greasy to touch, put it in the fridge for around 10 minutes to let the butter firm up and settle again or it will be really hard to work with and get your desired shape.
- Line 2 large baking trays with parchment paper. Use some cookie cutters of your choice, cut out your individual shortbread shapes. I normally get a yield of 24 pieces of shortbread. Remember to bring together your scraps of dough, re-roll and cut to ensure there is no waste. Always add a light dusting of flour to the work surface every time you re-roll to make sure it doesn't stick.
- Place your shortbread cutouts in the fridge for a minimum of 20 minutes to make sure the butter has solidified again. During this refridgeration time, preheat your oven to 160℃.
- Take your shortbread out of the fridge and place in the oven for 12 - 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them whilst they are baking and when they have risen slightly and the edges are just beginning to brown, they are ready.
- Remove the shortbread from the oven. Dust with caster sugar and allow to cool in the trays for 15 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
