I should open this post with the caveat that I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth, and I’m a bit funny with textures, especially pudding textures. (Yes, pudding, no fancy fake posh language here) but one of my favourite things to cook and eat is shortbread.

There is something to so satisfying about biting into the buttery crumbly goodness and having the salted butter taste fill your mouth and nose. It’s almost like therapy and having that taste takes me back to a happy place, probably numerous Christmases with the tins of ubiquitous, albeit slightly bland shortbread you always seem to find in the shops at that time. In my opinion, they don’t have enough butter, and this year’s shop bought batch was criminally undercooked. And you’ll soon find out that a lot of my food, sweet and savoury, is basically a conduit for me for me eat butter and cheese. In copious quantities.

Shortbread reminds me of my dad’s mum, she was a great cook and baker, and she did wonderful things with pastry and shortbread. For me, rightly or wrongly, shortbread’s sibling is the wonderfulness of a Viennese whirl. Virtually the same ingredients, but in slightly different quantities, they’re a little softer and more crumbly to bite into, although they still have a good ‘bite’ to them, and they melt in your mouth in a way that shortbread doesn’t. And they remind me of my other grandma, my mum’s mum. She knew they were a favourite so would often buy them for us, Mr Kipling of course; she didn’t bake as much latterly and oddly those biscuits ‘personalities’ if you like, are the same as my grandmas’. One was slightly firmer, a bit fiercer, there was no mucking around with her, and the other was soft and pliable, she could be cajoled slightly, as grandparents so often are, we often got our own way with her.

So here is the recipe I use for shortbread, when I have a decent one Viennese whirls, I publish that too:

Ingredients:

225g plain flour

100g semolina

225g butter

100g caster sugar

25g sugar for dusting

Tin – a good solid 30cm x 20cm baking tin – lined with baking paper

Oven – preheat to 150^oC or 160^oC

Method:

Using your hands, gently rub the ingredients together like you’re making breadcrumbs for pastry or a crumble top, and gently continue until the mix comes together to form a dough. If it doesn’t, a splash of milk or vanilla essence will do the job, but be really careful and add it a teaspoon at a time. Stab all over with a fork, you can do it in nice lines if you like, or just random and carefree if you’re that way inclined. Cook for 30 minutes and check it – it should be golden brown, leave it a few more minutes if it’s still a bit pale. Once its golden, take it out of the oven, allow it to cool for a few minutes, and then cut into squares or rectangles, and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Once cool, eat. Or share with your friends. Or not.