Shortbread

Looking through ingredients, we needed something quick and easy to fill the oven whilst we made a double batch of choc chip nut butter cookies.  It had to be a bake that wasn't fussy or requiring kit like a mixer...

Grabbing 160g room temperature butter, 250g Dove's Farm Plain flour, 85g golden caster sugar (plus a little less than a Tablespoonful for sprinkling) and a teaspoon of baking powder.  This is what we did -






The sugar and butter was 'creamed' (mixed by squeezing with ONE clean hand - always keep the other free for answering door/tweeting/whatever). 


Then the dry ingredients were included and mixed until it came together in a sort of dough.

Lining a rectangular baking tin, the dough was pressed out to cover the tin. 

Placing the shortbread into a pre-heated 160ºC fan oven (top shelf) it was baked for 25 minutes, checked then returned to the oven for a further 20 minutes.  You may need to check your bake depending on your oven... we were also baking cookies at the same time so the oven temperature varied a little throughout the baking time.

Checking for baking, you can see a thumb print left in the shortbread... it was too soft at that point!

Once thoroughly baked and just starting to brown, the shortbread was removed from the oven, sprinkled with a scant Tablespoon of caster sugar and allowed to cool in the tin for five minutes.  The
shortbread was then scored (we used a metal palette knife) to make portioning easier later.

After cooling fully in the tin, the shortbread was lifted out on the greaseproof paper and cut through (we used a cheese knife from a set that's never been used on cheese!) to make bite sized pieces.  We made 18 biscuits with this amount of ingredients.


Some biscuits were stored in airtight containers and a couple were taste tested with an espresso after a damp dog walk.  The shortbread was judged as "wow" and I was told "you *need* to eat this".  Success on a plate. 

Breakfast on the go...

We were staying away overnight last month and knew there'd be no suitable Gluten Free breakfast 'offerings' as part of the budget-hotel's B&B deal.  So, it was very timely to discover some Perk!er foods instant porridge pots and Nairn's Breakfast biscuits in our local Sainsbury's Free From shelves.

The Perk!er porridge pots were simple to use and provided a warming, tasty start to the day.  We tried the Apple, Cinnamon and Raisin and also the Fruit Berry flavours.  Making the porridge is easy - just fill to the line marked on the outside with boiling water, stir and wait...

 ... Sous Chef J tried them both and decided the Fruit Berry pot was his favourite.  We'll be sorting out a supply for mornings where we need a speedy start over the winter months.

Another breakfast item that is popular with Sous Chef J is Nairn's biscuit breaks.  There are two varieties to choose from - oats & syrup or oats & fruit.  Sous Chef J favours the fruity ones and likes the fact that the biscuits come in handy 4 biscuit packs...or pouches as Nairn's call them... there are 4 pouches per box.

It's good to know we now have on the go Gluten Free 'options' for breakfast which are quick, easy and tasty too.