Ingredients
2 cups white pastry flour. sifted (I mean it when I say "don't change this!")
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the large bowl of a mixer - with the dough hook attachment - beat your sugars and butter until light and creamy, about 2 minutes on high. A hand mixer will work just fine for this as well. I don't recommend doing this by hand, because your arm will fall off before you manage to get the sugar worked in enough that it won't become sticky during baking. In short, machines are your friends, in this case.
Sift in your flour, and mix on medium until you get a crumbly but thoroughly moist dough. It should not be sticky, and should come together when you pat it into a ball.
Press into a parchment lined round (8 inch) cake tin, to about 1 1/4 inch thickness. Using a wooden skewer, puncture the dough every 3/4 inch or so to allow air to escape (all over the dough!).*
Bake for about 25 - 35 minutes, or until light golden in colour. Allow to cool before eating, because it will firm up as it cools. Otherwise, it will fall apart.
***VARIATIONS***
* Very often, I like to make my shortbread in shapes rather than a round. To do so, roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment or wax paper to about 1/2 inch thickness. Cut out with your favourite cookie cutters, and arrange on a baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake for about 12 minutes at 325 degrees F. When you take them out of the oven, make sure to allow them to cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before gently lifting them to a cooling rack; use a spatula. Cool completely, and go to the next variation, if you are interested.
* My absolute favourite teatime cookie is shortbread with raspberry jam. I use two sizes of cookie cutter for this. I cut out 12 large (4 inch) hearts. While six of them are baking, I take the other six and remove the centres using a small (one inch) heart. I bake these (and the leftover tiny hearts) while the previous six are cooling. Once all the big hearts are cooled, I drop a tbsp. of raspberrry jam in the centre of the big hearts, and top them with the other six hearts (the ones with the centres cut out!). You end up with six large raspberry-jam shortbread sandwiches, and six tiny hearts.
* This recipe cannot be made vegan. I'm sorry. It would be a sin to attempt this without butter, and I would have to kill you if you tried.
Enjoy!
Try this recipe while listening to: Joanna Newsom
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