Scottish Shortbread (My Mom’s)

We went to visit my mom in the charming courtyard at her residence yesterday. Everyone living there has been in quarantine and they are now thrilled to be able to invite friends and loved ones to sit outside. My mom isn’t doing much cooking lately so it was a surprise when she showed up with a container of Scottish Shortbread fresh out of the oven.

She knows it’s my favorite. A slightly embarrassing but true fact is that all shortbreads were devoured long before all the errands were run that afternoon. They were that good. I asked Mom if I could share her recipe and she was delighted.  This is actually an amazing recipe for lots of reasons. For one thing, it only has 3 ingredients – so easy you don’t need to write it down. And there is the fact that my mother created this recipe after tasting dozens of different shortbreads in Scotland. For many of her years as an English teacher, she took her students on trips to England and Scotland. She has great memories of having tea and shortbread in the late afternoon while watching the lights come on around her. Mom was clear that some shortbreads were better than others and she always came home wanting to recreate the best of the best. She did not lack for willing tasters.While the results were all pretty good It was true – some were better.

Sometimes there was just too much stuff in the recipe and it overwhelmed the pure taste of butter and sugar. For example, vanilla – it’s just plain unnecessary. Mixing cornstarch in with the flour – weird after taste. She finally settled on the perfect recipe and that was that. She became legendary for mailing me boxes of shortbread when I was in college turning perfectly pleasant roommates into hovering vultures. Sometimes I forget about making Mom’s Scottish Shortbread for a while but this was a pleasant reminder from my mother that often the simplest recipes are the best. Try this and you will agree. Enjoy!

Mom’s Scottish Shortbread

Ingredients

1 cup flour

½ cup butter (1 stick) softened

¼ cup sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Use a fork or your hands to mix all ingredients together until crumbly. (Mom swears she does this in the pan she bakes it in – but I still use a mixing bowl.)

Press the mixture into an ungreased 8 x 8 baking dish.

Bake for 30 minutes until edges are a tiny bit brown.

Cool before slicing into squares.