Scottish Shortbread recipe

I'm posting this by request. It's truly scrumptious, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread. The recipe was given to me by my husband's cousin Mary, a delightful Scottish lady.

MARY AKEHURST’S SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD

Yield:  1/2 cookie sheet

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

2 tablespoons rice flour (or very fine flour)

1/2 cup fruit sugar (very fine sugar)

2 cups flour

Double the amount for a large cookie sheet or just spread over half the sheet. Don’t spread the dough thinly. It should be fairly thick.

Beat butter until creamy. Add flour and work in well. Add sugar and rice flour and work in well. Knead with hands for a minute or two. Then pat into the tin. (I used flour on my hands and on a knife—otherwise the dough sticks to everything.) Mark with tines of a fork. (I had enough trouble without doing that.)

You can also roll mixture out and cut into shapes or leave it whole.

Bake at 275 degrees for about an hour. Small cookies take much less time.