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Method :
Put the
flour, salt and rice flour, or ground rice, through a sieve into a large
bowl. Add the sugar. Grate the butter, which must be very cold. Add it
to the flour, sugar, salt and rice flour. Rub the butter into the other
ingredients with your fingers. The mixture should look like breadcrumbs.
Use you fingers again and push the shortbread mixture into a cake tin,
18cm across and 2-3cm deep. It should be about 1/2-3/4 thick. Make the
top smooth with your fingers. Then make little holes all over the
shortbread with a fork. With a knife cut the shortbread into 8 pieces.
Put the shortbread in the refrigerator and leave it for at least an
hour. Set the oven to 150C, Mark 2. Bake the shortbread in the centre of
the oven for 1 hour. When it is ready it should be a very light yellow /
brown color. Take the shortbread out of the oven and leave it in the
cake tin for 15 minutes. Then take it out of the cake tin and put it on
a wire rack. Let it get cold. When it is cold, break the shortbread into
8 petticoat tails.
Makes 8
slices
Shortbread is
Scotland's most famous biscuit. It is eaten all through the year but
especially at Christmas and Hogmanay (Scottish New Year). A piece of
shortbread is always given to the "first footers" at Hogmanay. This
shortbread is called "Petticoat tails" because of its shape. It looks
like the skirts which women wore under their dresses in the seventeenth
century. The secret of good shortbread is to keep the ingredients and
your hands as cold as possible. You must touch the mixture as little as
possible. If you touch it too much it will not be crisp. It will keep
fresh in an airtight tin for at least a week.
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