Brown Sugar Scottish Shortbread

By mitzzy

Lightly butterscotch in character, fine shortbread by any other name. Make a tin of mixed white sugar and brown sugar shortbread. Pulverized sugar is the trick along with a smidgen of rice flour and slow baking.

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon rice flour
• 2 cups, scant, all purpose flour

Preparation

Step 1

In a food processor, whiz the sugar to finely pulverize, about 10 seconds.

Remove and place in a mixer with the butter. Cream on slow speed until well blended and then add in the flour, rice flour and salt and blend to make a firm dough.

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Double up two baking sheets and line top one with parchment paper.

Knead on a lightly floured work surface about 1 minute, to make dough very firm. Flatten the dough in a disc, wrap well and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Roll out gently and cut into cookies or sticks that are ½ to ¾ inch thick.

Place on prepared cookie sheet. Bake, immediately reducing temperature to 300 F until lightly browned, about 40-50 minutes.

Cool well. Keep in a tin; cookies improve with age.

Makes 24-36 cookies