{make this} Scottish Shortbread from Eating Out Loud

This recipe has been billed as “the only shortbread recipe you’ll ever need” and I couldn’t agree more. The secret to this Scottish-style shortbread is kind of weird- it’s cornstarch. Lots and lots of cornstarch. And, naturally, lots of butter. But it’s absolutely the best shortbread recipe I’ve tried to date.

Of course, shortbread is fabulous on its own, but I happened to have some fresh clementine curd on hand, so it was hard to resist drizzling some over the top. I also sampled it with a glass of milk, a mug of tea, with hot chocolate, by itself, and… well, don’t judge me, it makes an enormous recipe so I basically HAD to eat it so it wouldn’t go to waste.

You can (and should) get the recipe from Eating Out Loud. I would add a few notes in addition:

• I recommend sifting the dry ingredients so you don’t get any hard lumps. (True confession: my cornstarch might have been old and lumpy.)
• This makes an enormous amount (6 cups of dry ingredients!) so I made a half recipe and put it in a 9×13 pan.
• Perhaps because of making the half recipe in a different kind of pan, they took me about 1 hour and 20 minutes total to cook.
• I wasn’t able to prick the shortbread with a fork before putting them in the oven – they were too flaky to prick. So I did the pricking about halfway through the baking. Maybe I didn’t press the mixture down hard enough? So: press it down really well.