Scottish shortbread

A few years ago, I did Scottish highland dancing. It was wonderful, and I loved it, but after awhile I saw that I didn't have the dedication to continue on. But I do remember that my teacher would sometimes have Scottish shortbread in decorative tins for us to eat. And the buttery melt-in-your mouth cookies were always a favorite with me. So the other day I was leafing through The Joy of Cooking, (yes, I sometimes read cookbooks for fun, it usually ends in me making something!) and stumbled across the recipe for Scottish shortbread. I could taste it in my mouth and decided that some baking needed to happen. My favorite things about this recipe is that it only has 5 ingredients and using rice flour and/or cornstarch actually makes it more crumbly and moist. Yup, you heard me, it's actually better to use those gluten-less ingredients. Of course, you can still very easily use regular wheat flour but for those of you who have gluten-free people in your life, take heed.

SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD
adapted from the Joy of Cooking
 
10 tablespoons (5oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Cream the butter, sugars and salt together until smooth, then gently sift the flour on top while stirring. Lightly knead until smooth and well blended. If the dough's too dry to stick together, sprinkle a few drops of water over it but be careful not to over moisten. Firmly press the dough into an 8 x 8 inch baking pan (or mold if you happen to have one) to form a smooth, even layer. Unless you're using a mold, pierce the dough deeply with a fork in a decorative pattern all over the surface. Bake the shortbread at 300 degrees Fahrenheit until it's tinged with pale gold and a little bit darker on the edges (45 to 50 minutes). Let cool until barely warm when you'll want to cut the shortbread almost all the way through into bars. Once they're completely cool gently retrace the cuts to form bars.