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Show Shortbread Is Tasty Scotch Holiday Fare WANT to please someone who "has everything" with a really extra special Christmas gift? A festively decorated round of Royal Scotch shortbread is the perfect answer to that very pressing problem. The familiar tartan-covered, heather -trimmed tins are missing from the stores this year, so we'll use a really wonderful old Christmas recipe reci-pe from Scotland and make some ourselves instead. A quarter cup of powdered sugar is all the recipe requires, so you can plan to make as many rounds as you can for Christmas gifts. After all sugar is a very precious Item this Christmas, isn't it and it's good to know of something so delectable that does require so little! lit-tle! One of the tricks in making good Scotch shortbread Is to rub the butter but-ter into the flour mixture with the fingertips instead of a pastry blender. blend-er. The butter softens slightly that way and absorbs the flour and sugar perfectly. The sliced cherries and the chopped almonds are the ingredients ingredi-ents that give the regal touch and unbelievably Christmassy texture to this usually somewhat austere Scotch specialty. It's so good you just have to taste it to believe itl Save half a dozen of the most perfect per-fect cherries and almonds for decoration deco-ration or use bits of green angelica with the cherries instead. If you have a box of glace fruit you can let your imagination run riot of course and really go to town, but in general the cherries will do the job very nicely indeed. When the shortbread is baked, cut a round of white cardboard exactly the same size. Slide a broad spatula spat-ula gently under the round of shortbread short-bread when it is cool and lift it carefully on to the cardboard. Wrap gaily in cellophane and trim proudly with red ribbon and holly, for a gift of Royal Scotch shortbread short-bread is a very elegant gift indeed! Royal Scotch Shortbread. Yx cup sifted flour Vs cup cornstarch Yi cup powdered beet sugar cup butter 1 egg yolk, beaten Yt, cup chopped blanched almonds J-S cup candied cherries, quartered Sift together flour, cornstarch and sugar. Add butter, blending with finger tips until thoroughly mixed. Add egg yolk, mix well with fork. Add almonds and cherries. Form into a balL Place in the center of a greased cooky sheet. Pat or roll out about half an inch thick keeping as perfect a circle as possible. Pinch edges decoratively. Arrange halved cherries and almonds or angelica in the center. Bake in a slow oven (300 degrees) for half an hour or until center is done and edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool. Loosen Loos-en carefully with spatula before transferring from cooky sheet. The shortbread may be shaped into a quare and cut into finger strips before baking if preferred. |