Shortbread

Ever since eating some of Gillian Clarke's mum's shortbread I've always wanted to know how to make it. This year however I got The Bay Tree recipe book for Christmas and it has just the recipe I've been wanting.

Ingredients

This recipe can easily be divided or multiplied depending on how many you need.

• 200g butter (at room temperature)
• 100g sugar
• 200g white flour
• 100g cornflour

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 190°C (I have a non-fan oven so if you have a fan over you might want to reduce this to 150°C)
2. Beat together the sugar and butter
3. Mix the flour and corn flour and then add to the creamed butter and sugar and mix together
4. Take the mix from the bowl, form a ball, and then roll out to about half a centimetre thick
5. Cut into shapes and spread on Bakewell paper, leaving space between biscuits as they will grow a bit (I don't actually have a shaped cutter but I find a pizza cutter does the job and I don't end up with off-cuts!)
6. Cook for about 15 mins until they just start to brown slightly
7. Remove from oven, sprinkle lightly with sugar and place carefully on a cooling rack