Top 5 Flawless Recipes for Baking with Young Children

Scottish Shortbread

(from age 4)

I have yet to meet a child or an adult, for that matter, who does not love shortbread. That very simple mix of butter, sugar and flour, makes for an extremely delicious bake, yet would you believe that shortbread is so easy that a child can make it – literally.

A lot of Scottish shortbread recipes call for creaming butter and sugar in to flour and then turning the dough out to knead and shape it in to place.

A very child friendly way to making these yummy treats is actually to rub the butter in to the flour with fingers. Once the flour, sugar and butter are combined, it will begin to resemble sand or breadcrumbs at which point, you can start to work it together in to a dough.

The recipe both scales up and down well.

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Ingredients and tools

• 125 g butter, softened/li>
• 50 g caster sugar
• 175 g all-purpose flour
• Baking dish and fork

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C)
2. Rub the butter in to the sugar and flour, until it begins to resemble sand. Continue rubbing until it starts to come together like breadcrumbs.
3. Continue working the dough until it starts to come together. The heat from your hands will help this come together.
4. Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead for 5 minutes to form a soft dough.
5. Once your dough is ready, you can decide what shapes you would like for your shortbread.
6. More imaginative shortbread can be made with cookie cutters or tart cutters.
7. Alternatively, for convenience, simply flatten the dough out in to a large-ish baking dish (approximately 1/4″ thick) and smoothen out the top.
8. Using a fork, prick the surface with a fork.
9. Bake until the shortbread is pale golden, especially around the edges. Typically 20-25 minutes.
10. If baking in a baking dish, cut in to squares or strips as preferred as soon as it comes out of the oven.
11. Sprinkle caster sugar over the top and cool before eating!