cookie calendar - day 15: brown sugar shortbread

Laura's adorable blog, I'd Much Rather Bake Than, is full of fun, beautiful baking ideas and everyone know how much I love to bake! LOL.

Seriously though, I love her recipe for brown sugar shortbread. I love the taste brown sugar adds to any baked good, but have never tried putting it into shortbread, so I can't wait to give this recipe a go!

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guest post by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than

Helloooo! I’m so excited for this post today because it is my first ever guest post and for it to be on such a fantastic looking project is even better. I can’t believe I missed the 2012 Cookie Advent Calendar! Thank you loads Stephanie for letting me join in.

It took me a little while to decide which cookies (or biscuits as I most often call them) to share with you all but then I hit upon the idea of Brown Sugar Shortbread. For me it is perfect. Christmas in our house wouldn’t be Christmas without my mum baking batch after batch of traditional shortbread, not to mention millionaire’s shortbread to cut up and wrap in individual squares of foil. We literally cannot go anywhere in the week before or after Christmas day without people demanding to know where there portion is. They feel it is their right to have some during that period because they have had to put up with a lack of baked goodies for the rest of the year. Family is the worst for this but a close call would be the people where Mum works. Once December hits, they know what’s coming.

So yes, Mum is a baker and I have taken after her big time. I’ve always been surrounded by homemade foods then in the last couple of years I got into baking and cooking myself in a big way. Now it is more of an obsession and I have my own band of people at uni wanting to know if I have cake with me or when the next batch is arriving. I once made some millionaire’s shortbread myself and took it in to get everyone’s opinion even though I knew it wasn’t perfect. Big mistake. It is now in demand, faults and all. 

Back to the point. Shortbread is pretty big for me at this time of year but I am an experimental baker. I physically do not have the ability to leave a recipe alone. It must be adapted. Shortbread is such a short and easy recipe though I couldn’t really do much unless I put stuff in it like chocolate chips or nuts which I have done in the past and both worked well, but it wasn’t really what I was looking for. The sugar was the key. Caramel is one of my favourite flavours and the demerara gives enough of a hint to go really well here with the traditional buttery flavour of shortbread. You could use a soft brown sugar too but I think the Demerara gives a bit of crunch. I’d love to hear your verdict. If you do have a go at these then look me up on Twitter (@MustBakeCakes) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/idmuchratherbakethan) and show off what you’ve made. I’m also on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/lauradenman/boards/) where you can have a nosey around and see the results of my addiction to collecting gorgeous recipes. 

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

brown sugar shortbread

Ingredients

• 4oz softened butter
• 2oz Demerara sugar
• 5oz plain flour
• 1oz semolina

Method

• Set the oven to 170°C/150°C fan. Grease a 7 or 8 inch round or square tin.
• Beat the butter with an electric mixer (or by hand) until creamy then beat in the sugar until just combined, not light and fluffy as if you were making a sponge cake.
• Sift in the flour and semolina and mix together until combined – you’ll probably have to finish it with your hands. Bring together in a ball and press into the greased tin until smooth and level. The bake of a spoon helps here. Mark into fingers or wedges with desired and use a fork to make a pattern in each piece.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 mins until a very pale golden then cool on a wire rack before removing from the tin. (If the shortbread starts to puff up during baking, gently pat back down and lower the temperature by 10°C.)

The recipe and all photos used in this blog post belong to Laura / I'd Much Rather Bake Than and should not be reprinted without her express permission.