Traditional Scottish Shortbread - Just 4 Ingredients

[Applause] christmas time it's all about traditions and our tradition here at let's celebrate tv is showing you every year how to make my scottish shortbread [Music] hi everyone welcome to today's episode of let's celebrate tv i'm your host peter lee on this channel we teach you all about celebrating we show you recipes for food hors d'oeuvres cocktails and we share entertaining tips we try to keep it all very simple especially for all of those of you who say you just can't do it because we know you really can so if you like this episode hit the subscribe button hit the like button and watch a new episode every single week now today it's christmas time of course and our celebration is all about our favorite scottish shortbread you know christmas and hanukkah and all the holidays are all about traditions and our tradition here at let celebrate tv is that every year we're going to show you our scottish shortbread recipe because what a what other way to cook out for christmas is there it's just wonderful so let's get started i've got all my ingredients let's talk about the pan first here's a selection of pans now you know you've seen my tried and true scottish shortbread mold this is just like the one my mother used so that's what i always use every year to start things off they're very hard to find you can sometimes find them on ebay but they're getting harder and harder to find we'll put this aside you can find a lot of others online for example this one now i have several of these and i use these all year round and throughout christmas time too so we'll have the links for these up in the comments section like we do every year so you can find them online too if you don't have these if you don't have my favorite pan you can just use a square pan or you can even use a pie plate it's all fine so let's get these out of the way now my pan here is nice and shiny because i sprayed it with cooking spray and that's the first thing you want to do just give it a good spray and set it aside a little quieter quieter than i did all right starts with two sticks of butter now your butter you want it to be soft room temperature so all i did was i put it in the bowl last night put some cling film over it and i let it sit overnight it's not going to go bad it's not going to go rancid you don't want it too soft or liquid because then you get a galloping shortbread and you'll have to add more flour if it's too hard you'll get little pockets of butter those will steam when you bake it and then you get a flaky pie crust like texture and that's not what you want either you want a tender rich shortbread so this is right about where i like you can just pull your finger through it and it's nice and soft and pliable now first important rule use real butter you must use real butter if you object to real butter then go and make something else because it's just not going to be the same it won't taste as good it won't come out the same so use real butter next flour two cups now you don't have to be a pastry chef you don't have to be super super exact and weigh it out by volume or anything two cups one two now i know all my pastry chef friends are cringing because i just scooped that in and packed it instead of shoveling him with a spoon it's a very forgiving recipe convection sugar is the next ingredient three quarters of a cup what i like to do is just use my finger on the side and kind of level it one two and three salt is the fourth and final ingredient see how easy four ingredients now i happen to be using salted butter because that's what i like to use and i'm familiar with this brand so i know how salty it is so i know i just need a tiny pinch extra this is just gonna help the sweetness kind of come together if you're using unsalted butter you want to use about an eighth of a teaspoon or a healthier pinch than that now that completely clean hands we're going to mix this up now i learned this recipe from my mother and she could just knock these out one after another she would always ever use one hand so i'm going to try and channel her today and do it with just one hand you know i think if i'm gonna channel my mother i need something first my mother usually had a martini next to her when she was mixing shortbreads so this one's for you mom hope i get it right okay so one hand and you're just gonna squeeze it all together and mix it in very simple now you could if you wanted do this in your stand mixer i did one last week just to try it and honestly it didn't save me any time because you have to do it all on low speed where you get flour everywhere i found it just as quick and just as easy to do it by hand and besides there's something about touching this and feeling it come together that just helps with the whole experience so as i mix this i should probably tell you about the first time i had scottish shortbread i remember it was a very little boy sometime in the 70s and this big box came from new york and it was from my grandfather who was from scotland and there are all kinds of treats inside there was oat cakes and and pastries and this strange plain looking blonde squares i didn't know what they were so i asked my mother she said that's shortbread she gave me a piece wow what a difference it was tender and buttery and sweet and and just the best thing ever i'd ever tasted in my life that was my introduction to shortbread then of course she made it and of course i like my mom's better than my grandpa's but i couldn't tell him that same recipe but you know it was mom all right so this is almost come together just that fast as i've been talking to you see all right and there we go and all i've dirtied is one hand let's move this i'll come back to that later bring this over here switch into the mold so you just bring it all up plop it right in you don't have to let it rest or anything right in the mold and all i'm doing is smoothing it out with my hands so that's an even layer and i'm really pushing it down into all the nooks and crannies so it picks up that beautiful print on it the whole design now you could if you wanted certainly be a little fancier and use the bottom of a measuring cup and get a nice flat bottom but i don't think it's necessary because this is going to be the bottom part anyway you'll never see it now why i say use your hands you can feel when it's all an even layer and there we go easy right alrighty now i'm going to bake this at 325 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes i'll check it at 30 minutes and that's about when you start to smell it what you're looking for is a pale golden maybe a little darker golden around the edges you don't want to go too much because then it'll just be overcooked and toasty and not quite as tender so here we go off to the ovens alrighty we are out of the oven it's been 35 minutes and i checked it at 30 gave it a couple more and it came out perfectly now look at that it's pale golden a little dark around the edge and that's okay so i've been letting this sit for about 15 minutes and all i've done is i've taken my little paring knife just run around the edges for paranoia's sake so it should be fine okay now i have these little sparkly discs that i found i love buying these cardboard disks uh from the craft store because when you want to take these shortbreads to to occasions and things this is perfect you don't worry about losing a plate so here comes the moment of truth cross your fingers say a prayer to some kitchen god somewhere here we go okay i think i felt it release let's hope ah yeah there we go scottish shortbread right out of the mold and yeah that was real now i'm going to cut this while it's warm because if i wait for it to cool all the way it might get a little uh crumbly now a couple little spots where it might have stuck a little bit on the edge and that's okay it really doesn't matter you can't really tell now this particular pan makes eight wedges and i'm going to cut each of those wedges into half which will give me 16 pieces my mother had some fancy way of cutting this all the pattern out but she had a lot more people to feed than i do so all right just that simple there's my eight all righty almost there now what would you serve this with let's go with coffee it's good with eggnog it's good with wine it's good with anything really one more now you really normally want to let this cool before you taste it but i'm going to go ahead and sneak a piece only because i've got about 10 more of these to make so no one will notice if i just sneak a little piece out and taste for you now this is a little soft in the center and a little crumbly because it's warm but that's okay it's a sacrifice i'm willing to make for you [Music] that's the taste of christmas it's just buttery very tender very melt in your mouth a little bit sweet and a taste of home so here we are scottish shortbread our new tradition that we'll make for you every year now as always i'm going to have this recipe up in the comment section on youtube we'll have all the links to the shortbread pans up there as well and we'd love to hear from you so contact us on youtube and follow us on facebook and write us facebook questions and comments there too send me pictures send me pictures if you make shortbread or show me pictures of how you celebrate the holidays and your favorite dishes to make so that's our show for today thank you for joining us i'm your host peter lee cheers [Music] you

Channel: Peter Lee - Let's Celebrate TV

Views: 72,422

Keywords: traditional scottish shortbread, traditional scottish shortbread recipe, scottish shortbread, traditional shortbread, scottish shortbread recipe, shortbread recipe scottish, traditional shortbread recipe, scottish shortbread cookies, Let's Celebrate TV, shortbread recipe without mixer, shortbread, shortbread cookies recipe easy, christmas recipes, baking, shortbread recipe, shortbread cookies, family recipes, Peter Lee, cooking channels for beginners, cooking shows on youtube

Id: a4-dfKTRS6w

Length: 13min 42sec (822 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 10 2019