Not to be confused with Shortcake or Shortcrust pastry. Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat bere bannock. The triangular wedges became known as “petticoat tails” in Scots and this form of shortbread has become particularly associated with Mary, Queen of Scots. It has been suggested that a French term for the wedges of shortbread was petits gâteaux or petites gatelles – little cakes, and this became “petticoat tails”.
Evidence for Mary’s baking and shortbread is sparse. In American English, shortbread is different from shortcake. Shortcake usually has a chemical leavening agent such as baking powder, which gives it a different, softer texture, and it was normally split and filled with fruit. Other ingredients are often substituted for part of the flour to alter the texture. Rice flour or semolina makes it grittier, and cornflour makes it more tender. Bere or oat flour may be added for flavour.
Modern recipes also often deviate from the original by splitting the sugar into equal parts granulated and icing sugar and many add a portion of salt. Spices and ingredients such as almonds may be added. French petits cotés, a pointed biscuit eaten with wine, or petites gastelles, the old French for little cakes. Shortbread may also be made in farls.
In one the oldest shapes, bakers pinched the edges of a shortbread round to suggest the rays of the sun. The stiff dough retains its shape well during cooking. The biscuits are often patterned before cooking, usually with the tines of a fork or with a springerle-type mold. Shortbread is sometimes shaped into hearts and other shapes for special occasions.