Traditional shortbread got its start in Scotland

Reader Rachael Jarvis called recently looking for a recipe for shortbread cookies made without eggs that appeared in The Spokesman-Review. Her son is allergic to eggs and really enjoyed the cookies when she’d made them.

Traditional shortbread isn’t made with eggs. It includes one part white sugar, two parts butter and three parts white flour.

According to the “King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion” the simple cookie hails from Scotland, where it was made with oats and served at Christmas and New Year’s. It was in Tudor, England, where bakers replaced the oats with flour to create the cookie we know today.

“Shortbread came to this country with the Colonists and has been a stable of the baker’s kitchen ever since, appearing everywhere from the original Fannie Farmer cookbook, to shortbread Girl Scout cookies, the earliest flavor sold door-to-door by the Scouts,” according to the book.

We’ve run many variations on the recipe in the newspaper over the years, so I’m not sure if I’ve found just the one she lost. But here are a few from our archive.

Aunt Jean’s Scottish Shortbread

1 pound (4 sticks) salted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

4 cups plus 1 to 2 tablespoons flour, divided use

1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch

Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Using a fork, cream together until smooth. Gradually add 4 cups of the flour and cornstarch and mix with the fork until well-blended.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Sprinkle work surface with remaining 1 to 2 tablespoons flour. Knead dough until satiny smooth and divide into 8 even sections. Place dough sections on baking sheets and flatten into 1/4-inch discs. Flatten edges slightly using the tines of a fork. Poke holes throughout the discs.

Bake for 40 minutes at 300 degrees or for 60 minutes at 275 degrees (the slower the shortbread bakes, the better the texture and taste); do not brown. Remove from the oven and cool about 2 minutes. Cut shortbread discs into eighths and allow to cool completely. Store in cookie tins or wrap in wax paper then foil.

Yield: 8 (6- to 8- inch) rounds.

Nutrition information per serving: 91 calories, 6 grams fat (59 percent fat calories), 60 milligrams sodium, 9 grams carbohydrate, 1 gram protein.

Almond Shortbread Cookies

Recipe from Andre Prost, Odense Almond Paste at www.odense.com.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

7-ounce package almond paste, grated

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups flour

2 tablespoons milk (optional)

Sugar sprinkles (optional)

With an electric mixer, beat butter on high for 3 minutes or until very soft and light in color. Add grated almond paste and sugar. Mix on low speed until combined. Turn mixer to high and beat a full 5 minutes or more, until almost white-colored and fluffy. Mix in vanilla.

Gently stir flour into mixture until just combined. Spoon 1/2 of dough onto a 15-inch-long piece of wax paper. With hands, press dough out to a 1/4-inch thickness. Top with wax paper. Lightly smooth top with rolling pin. Keeping wax paper in place, lay dough on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining half of dough and chill for 1 hour to firm.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment or foil.

Work with one piece of dough at a time, keeping other half refrigerated. Cut out cookie shapes, shamrocks or as desired, and place on cookie sheets 2 inches apart, dipping cutters in flour if sticking. Repeat until all dough is used. Keep unbaked cookies refrigerated until ready to bake.

Bake plain or brush tops with milk and sprinkle with green sugar. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until cookies are firm and bottoms are very light golden. Cool on wire racks.

Yield: 46 2 1/2-inch cookies.

Approximate nutrition per cookie: 83 calories, 5 grams fat (2.6 grams saturated, 56 percent fat calories), 1 gram protein, 8.4 grams carbohydrate, 10.8 milligrams cholesterol, less than one gram dietary fiber, 41 milligrams sodium.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Triangles

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter (not spread), at room temperature, plus extra for greasing pans

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Pinch salt

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 scant cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

5 ounces dark coating chocolate (see note)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 (9-inch) pie pans with butter.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy.

In a separate bowl, combine salt and flour. Stir until blended. Add to butter mixture and beat until blended, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Stir in chocolate chips. Divide dough in half and place in prepared pie pans. Pat down, smoothing edges with fingertips. Using a small, sharp knife and a ruler, score dough in each pan into 8 wedges, cutting down halfway through the dough.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool.

Place coating chocolate in microwave-safe glass measuring cup with a handle. Microwave for 1 minute on highest power. Stir vigorously. If it hasn’t melted, microwave for 30 seconds and stir again. If it still hasn’t melted, microwave 30 seconds and stir again.

Using a sharp knife, cut into wedges, using the lines you previously cut as guidelines. Place wax paper on a baking sheet. Dip rounded end of each cookie into chocolate and place on wax paper for chocolate to harden.

Cookies can be stored 1 week in an airtight container at room temperature. Make sure cookies are completely cool before storing or they’ll sweat and become soggy.

Note: Coating chocolate is sold in craft stores, cake and candy-making shops and some supermarkets (often stocked next to the fresh berries in the produce section). Often it’s formed into small discs. If necessary, thin melted coating chocolate with 1 tablespoon with vegetable oil.

Yield: 16 triangles

Nutrition information per triangle: 270 calories, 15.5 grams fat (51 percent fat calories), 9 grams saturated fat, 32 milligrams cholesterol, 106 milligrams sodium.