Scottish Shortbread Cookies

Scottish Shortbread Cookies 

This recipe was given to my mother back in the late 60's and has been somewhat perfected by my sister and I (however, we are watched like hawks by our mother when we make them!)  It is an authentic Scottish recipe and it's a "workout" in itself making them! 

 You can do 3/4's of the mixing with a wooden spoon, but the trick is to knead the dough with your hands after you have almost all the flour mixed in. You want the dough to have a "cracked" look which means it is ready for roll-out.   You can use either your hands to flatten the dough or a wooden rolling pin, up to you.  I use a wooden cutting board.  Use the left over flour to smooth over the board before you roll out dough. 
You will also need a Sifter for flour mixture

1lb Butter softened (you can use unsalted / salted) 
1 cup Fruit Sugar - this is in a 500g Plastic resealable bag - Redpath Instant Dissolving Sugar)
4 cups of Flour
1 cup of Rice Flour 


Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar.  In a smaller bowl, mix the two flours together.
Put flour mixture in sifter and gradually sift into the butter/sugar mixture.  
You will want to do this very gradually as it gets tougher to fold it in as you go along! 
(this is where you get your arm workout) !  Eventually you can knead it with your hands until the dough "cracks".  At this point you can take parts of the dough and roll out flat and even.  Make sure the cookies are no more then 1/4" thick as they won't cook well.