Dish · british
Shortbread
A dense, crumbly cookie of just butter, sugar and flour, no eggs or leavener, baked until pale gold and cut into wedges or bars.
Where it comes from
Built around a short ingredient list where butter quality does most of the work, it grew from a baking tradition where plain grain and fat needed to stretch further than richer, egg-based baking.
What cooks argue about
How little the dough gets handled decides the texture: overworking it develops gluten and turns what should be tender into something closer to tough, and some bakers swap in rice flour for more crumble.
Versions
Nobody has published a shortbread here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.
What goes in it
Each one opens everything else made with it.
all purpose flour
butter