A very Curious Shortbread Recipe

We have been inspired by the Great British Bake Off to do some baking of our own! Why not make you own shortbread using the Curious Incident inspired recipe below…

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
110g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
110g cornflour
Pinch of salt (1/8^th of a teaspoon)
Red icing

Equipment:

2 baking trays
Baking Parchment
Large mixing bowl
Electric hand whisk
Sieve
Rolling Pin
Biscuit Cutters
Cooling Rack

What To Do:

1. Start by spreading a thin layer of butter into 2 baking trays. This is usually done with baking parchment, or as many people call it Grease Proof Paper. This is important because it stops your shortbread from sticking to the tray when it gets really hot and we wouldn’t want that!
2. Take a large mixing bowl (We usually choose a red plastic one) and add the 225g of unsalted butter and 110g of caster sugar. Plug in an electric hand whisk, and whisk until light and fluffy.
   

3. Next, take a sieve and sift in the 225g of plain flour and 110g of cornflour. Add 1/8^th of a teaspoon of salt, or as some people like to call it, a “pinch”. Mix all the ingredients together until the mixture is smooth and all combined.
4. Put a very thin layer of flour onto a flat clean surface such as a kitchen counter. Put your mixture onto the floured surface and knead into a soft dough. Kneading is the process of working something into a dough with your hands by pressing and reshaping it. You should keep pressing and reshaping the dough until you can mould it into a ball without it falling apart and isn’t sticky anymore.
5. Place the dough between 2 pieces of baking parchment. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it is 1cm thick.
   

6. Take your biscuit cutter (our favourites are car shaped, numbers or anything space related such as stars), and cut out your shapes from the dough. Press the scraps back together and re-roll out so that you can cut out more shapes.
   

7. Turn on your oven to 170°C.
8. Put your shapes on the baking trays and put in the fridge for 30 minutes (1,800 seconds).

9. Place the trays in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until they start to turn golden brown at the edges.

10. Take the trays out of the oven and leave to cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes so that they are firmer.

11. Carefully move the shortbread biscuits onto a wire cooling rack. This allows air to circulate under the biscuits, preventing condensation. If there was condensation your biscuits could end up soggy!

12. Once the biscuits have cooled completely, decorate with your red icing, or any other colour you like, but preferably not yellow or brown.

13. Eat your yummy shortbread!