Shortbread

Buttery, tender, rich, melt in your mouth, that's a shortbread worthy of a gold star.   I have a collection of shortbread recipes given to me and I thought it was time to put them up against one another, to find that gold star.  The three recipes each use different sugars and oven temperature varies.

THE CONTESTANTS

 Irish Shortbread

This is my mom's recipe that she has used for 40 odd years, perhaps more.  She would always press it into a pie plate score it and dock with a fork.  I opted to roll it out and make cutouts from it.  I wanted to see how each recipe would hold up to cutouts.

This is the only recipe that uses an additional flour other than all-purpose flour, that being rice flour.  The rice flour add a tenderness and slight crumbliness to the cookie since the flour is gluten-free.  There is just the right amount so that you do not get the graininess typical of baked good made with all rice flour.