Shortbread

Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter and three to four parts plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain leavening, such as baking powder or baking soda. Shortbread is widely associated with Christmas and Hogmanay festivities in Scotland, and some Scottish brands are exported around the world.

Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter and three to four parts plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain leavening, such as baking powder or baking soda. Shortbread is widely associated with Christmas and Hogmanay festivities in Scotland, and some Scottish brands are exported around the world. ==Name== Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture (from an old meaning of the word "short", as opposed to "long", or stretchy). The cause of this texture is its high fat content, provided by the butter. The short or crumbly texture is a result of the fat inhibiting the formation of long protein (gluten) strands. The related word "shortening" refers to any fat that may be added to produce a "short" (crumbly) texture. In British English, shortbread and shortcake have been synonyms for several centuries, starting in the 1400s; both referred to the crisp, crumbly cookie-type baked good, rather than a softer cake. The "short-cake" mentioned in Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor, first published in 1602¹, was a reference to the cookie-style of shortbread. In American English, shortbread is different from shortcake. Shortcake usually has a chemical leavening agent such as baking powder, which gives it a different, softer texture, and it is normally split and filled with fruit. The most popular example of this difference is strawberry shortcake. ==Varieties== Variations in ingredients for some recipes include the optional addition of caraway seeds to petticoat tails, coriander and caraway in Goosnargh, egg yolk and cream in Ayrshire, citrus peel and almonds in Pitcaithly bannock, and demerara sugar in Dorset. Millionaire's shortbread, also called caramel squares, is a modern variation, in which shortbread is topped with caramel and chocolate. ==See also== Breton shortbread Butter cookie Nankhatai Shortcake, a soft cake with a similar name Sugar cookie

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