Nick Malgieri
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Nick Malgieri

Real Scottish Shortbread

In the late eighties, I had gone for the first time to teach at a lovely kitchenware store and cooking school called the Parisian Pantry in Springfield, Missouri. Peggy, the owner, a native of Scotland, brought me to her home, where I would be staying with her and her husband. As soon as I was settled, we had afternoon tea with some exquisite shortbread cookies. Peggy was kind enough to share the recipe, which I hurriedly wrote down about three minutes after tasting the first cookie.

Makes about 24 2- to 2 1/2-inch round cookies

1/2 pound/2 sticks/227 grams unsalted butter very soft (I leave it out overnight)

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1/2 cup/100 grams sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups/338 grams unbleached all-purpose flour (spoon into dry-measure cup and level)

2 cookie sheets or jellyroll pans lined with parchment or foil 

  1. Set racks in the middle and upper thirds of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees.

  2. Beat the butter and sugar with the paddle in an electric mixer until very soft and light, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the salt and vanilla and beat briefly to combine.

  3. Fold in the flour by hand.

  4. Scrape the dough to a lightly floured surface and divide it into 3 or 4 pieces.

  5. Press out the dough with the palm of your hand until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Roll over once with a rolling pin to smooth the top of the dough and use a long spatula to detach it from the work surface.

  6. Use a fluted round cutter to cut out the cookies and place them about 1 inch apart on the prepared pans. After cutting one piece of dough, incorporate the scraps under the next piece when rolling.

  7. After you have pressed and cut out all the dough, keep pressing the scraps together until they are all used up.

  8. Use a fork to pierce each cookie 2 or 3 times.  If you like, sprinkle the cookies with sugar before baking.

  9. Bake the cookies until they are light golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Switch the top pan to the bottom rack, turning them back to front at the same time, about halfway through the baking.

  10. Cool on racks on the pans and store in a tin between sheets of wax paper.