_edited.png){kind=small}
These sweet little biscuits are one of my most popular bakes. I find myself baking them and taking them to my work at least once a month on high request. They're an instant crowd-pleaser and super simple and easy to whip up.
Dough
Shortbread is in my opinion, one of the simplest bakes around. As it's just butter, sugar and flour, it's pretty hard to mess it up. I've found the most important things are to use real butter (rather than margarine or cooking spreads) and to chill my dough for as long as I can before baking. Using real butter makes for that velvety, melt-in-the-mouth feel that makes shortbread so addictive. As for chilling the dough, leaving it to cool down means the butter won't melt as quickly when it's baked, meaning your shortbread stays thick and buttery after baking.
Chocolate
Anyone who knows me in real life knows that, despite how much I love eating it, I hate working with chocolate. Maybe it's the fickle British weather, but I just find it so sodding awkward. That being said, these shortbread really aren't the same without it so I've found some tricks to work around it.
I melt my chocolate in the microwave because I'm lazy, but you can use a bain marie if you wish. Either way, I find adding a few drops of oil (I use sunflower) to my chocolate helps make it easier to work with when it comes to dipping and drizzling. I notice I need more oil in the winter than in the summer, so I always take that into account when I'm baking.
Along with that, despite my previous comments I never actually "dunk" my shortbread. Whenever I do, it results in broken shortbread and lots of shouting, so instead, I use a spoon to scoop liberal amounts of chocolate onto the biscuit and then smooth it out. This does leave the bottom a bit short on chocolate, but who's looking at that part anyway?
Method:
Shortbread:
Mix the room temperature butter and the sugar in a bowl until it looks fluffy and it's lightened in colour
Add in the flour and mix again until all of the flour is incorporated into the mix
Flour your surface and rolling pin, then roll out your shortbread dough until it's about the thickness of two £1 coins
Cut your shortbread into any shape you like! (I used hearts)
Place your shortbread in the fridge to chill for 2 hours
Heat your oven to 160c fan or 180c non fan
Remove your shortbread from the fridge and bake them for 12-15 minutes
Once cooked, remove them from the oven and leave them to the side to cool
Decoration:
Place your preferred chocolate in a bowl and either melt in a microwave in short 20 second blasts or use a Bain Marie. You can also temper your chocolate at this stage if you wish, but I didn't bother. If you do want to temper your chocolate, you can follow my guide here
If needed, add a drizzle of oil to your chocolate so it is runny enough to pour over your biscuits
Once your biscuits are cooked, pour your chocolate over them in whichever pattern you wish, then sprinkle your freeze dried raspberries over the top
Place your biscuits in the fridge to chill
Comments