Rosemary Shortbread

Buttery Scottish-style shortbread scented with finely chopped fresh rosemary, the resinous, piney herb playing against the sweet richness of butter and sugar: a surprising, sophisticated biscuit for the tea table or the cheeseboard

Origin: Britain

From the journey of Rosemary.

Shortbread is one of the great British biscuits, Scottish in origin and built on the simplest of formulas: butter, sugar, and flour in the proportions that give it its crumbling, melting richness. Herbs are a quiet British tradition in baking, and rosemary, the most aromatic of the cottage-garden herbs, makes one of the most elegant of all savoury-sweet shortbreads. Finely chopped and worked through the dough, it lends the biscuit a fragrant, piney, faintly resinous note that cuts the sweetness and makes the shortbread as at home beside a wedge of cheese or a glass of sweet wine as on the tea tray. It is a modern classic of the British baking revival, but it draws on a very old British instinct to bring the herb of remembrance into the sweet things of the table.

Ingredients

  • 200 g cold unsalted butter, cubed
  • 100 g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
  • 280 g plain flour
  • 40 g rice flour or cornflour (for extra crumbliness)
  • 2 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves, very finely chopped
  • 0.25 tsp fine salt

Method

  1. Beat the cold butter and sugar together until just combined and pale, but do not over-cream; shortbread should be dense, not airy.
  2. Add the plain flour, rice flour, finely chopped rosemary, and salt. Mix gently until the dough just comes together into a stiff, slightly crumbly mass.
  3. Press the dough into a lined 20cm square tin in an even layer (or roll out and cut into rounds or fingers). Prick all over with a fork and chill for 20 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 160°C (140°C fan / 320°F). Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until pale golden at the edges but still blond on top.
  5. Dust with caster sugar while still warm, then mark into fingers or squares. Leave to cool completely in the tin before lifting out and separating.

Notes

The rice flour (or cornflour) is the traditional Scottish trick for an extra-short, sandy crumb; all plain flour works too. This shortbread sits beautifully on a cheeseboard, especially with blue cheese or a hard sheep's cheese, as well as on the tea table. A little lemon zest added with the rosemary brightens it further. Stored in an airtight tin, it keeps for a week.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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