
MAKES
14 biscuits
DURATION
2-3 hours
DIFFICULTY
Easy

• 375g plain flour
• 250g cold butter, diced
• 65g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
• 30g demerara sugar
• 30g soft light brown sugar
• 4g fine sea salt

- Preheat your oven to 120°C/ 100°C fan/ gas 1⁄2 (250ºF/ 210ºF fan) and line a baking tray or tin with baking paper.
- Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the diced cold butter.
- Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, then add the sugars and salt and continue to mix until a crumbly but smooth paste is reached. You can rest this dough after it’s made, but it’s easier to roll it out straight away.
- Roll it out to form a 30cm square about 4mm thick, then cut out shapes using a 6cm round pastry cutter.
- Bring the trimmings together and re-roll, then place all the biscuits on your prepared baking tray. Or if making chunky shortbread fingers roll to the size of your tin, the dough should be about 1cm thick.
- With a butter knife gently mark out your shortbread fingers. Score the dough down the middle from top to bottom and then across to make the finger shapes.
- Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- With a fork, make rows of little holes in the shortbread. Don’t push the fork all the way through the dough, just lightly across the surface.
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 55 minutes, turning the tray round after 30 minutes and trying not to get much colour on the shortbread.
- Once out of the oven, sprinkle with caster sugar, cool on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
