I make - gluten-free shortbreads

Shortbreads have more butter in proportion than shortcrust pastry. That's one thing I discovered today after looking up recipes. The traditional shortcrust pastry has two parts of flour with 1 part of butter. Shortbreads have more than 50% butter, usually around 60% and above! Well, look away dieters.

Gluten-free shortbreads

200 g gluten-free flour (30 g cornstarch + 30 g teff/rice flour + 140 g all-purpose GF flour)

110 g butter (55% of the flour)

50 g sugar

1/4 tsp xanthan gum if not included int he all-purpose GF flour

optional flavoring: vanilla extract, orange/lemon zest

Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in flour and xanthan gum. The mixture may need a couple of minutes to absorb the butter but it will. I sometimes add a tablespoon of liqueur (e.g. amaretto) to add some flavor without too much water.

Roll out the dough to a pie dish, or a rectangle on a baking tray. Chill the dough for 20 minutes in the fridge. Preheat the oven at 180C.

Remove the dough from the fridge, cut the dough into wedges or small rectangles. Dock the surface with a fork. Bake 18-20 minutes (the thickness of my shortbread is about 0.7cm). If thicker, bake 20-25 minutes.

When the baking is done, remove the shortbreads out of oven and cut again immediately along the cutting lines made before baking. Let the shortbreads cool on the baking dish completely before moving to the wire rack.