My name is Jean Gash and I am from the North of England however, many of my ancestors came from the Shetland Islands. The Shetland Islands are Scottish; the Islands are situated off the Scottish mainland between Scotland and Norway in the Northern Atlantic Ocean. My mother made the following shortbread recipe for every special occasion we had as I was growing up (the recipe that my family uses for Scottish Shortbread has been passed down from mother to daughter for more than several generations). Shortbread was an infrequent luxury during medieval Scotland; one documented example was the tradition in Shetland to break a large circle of shortbread over new brides’ heads as they crossed the doorway to their new home (historic-uk.com retrieved 3/25/2021)!
Ingredients
1 Pound of butter (I use Kerry Gold)
1cup of sugar
4 cups of sifted all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur)
Methods
Preheat the oven to 385 F
Prepare large cookie sheets by greasing the trays with either butter or cooking spray
Step 1
Use either a stand mixer or hand mixer to cream the butter and sugar until the mixture becomes white and fluffy
Step 2
Add the flour very gently (stir not beat) at about ½ cup increments until all the flour has been incorporated into the butter mixture. Beating the flour into the cookies will result in the final product being tough and heavy
Step 3
Roll the dough into a ball, cover and let rest in the refrigerator for approximately 15 minutes.
Step 4
On a large board divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll out the first ball into a rectangle for traditional shortbread shape. Cut the rectangle into triangles as shown below.( I make small round cookies for my grandchildren)
Step 5
Put two fork pricks into each cookie then sprinkle the top with sugar. The traditional method is white sugar, but for children I use colored sugar.
Step 6
Put one tray at a time in an oven’s upper middle shelf. It is very important to watch the cookies while in the oven as cooking time varies between ovens. The shortbread will puff up a little during the first 5 minutes of cooking (see photo below), then they will return to the original size.
The Shortbread is done when the top is lightly brown but the base is a honey brown.
This recipe will provide 48-60 cookies depending on size and shape. Impossible to eat just one therefore impossible to calculate servings!
Food Insecurity
The United Kingdom saw an increase of 5,146% of food emergency box requests during the time between 2008-2018. During this 10 year period (2008-2018) the number of food parcels distributed increased from 26,000 a year to 1.33 million (hrw.org).
The British government began a policy in 2017 to give a child tax credit to a maximum of two children; for example, a family with 4-5 children were only given a tax break for two of the 4-5 children. The government is currently reviewing this policy (hrw.org).
The rise in food insecurity in Britain coincides with the British Austerity Period. The government froze benefits to the unemployed despite the rise in inflation pushing these individuals further into poverty (hrw.org). The reason given for the freeze on benefits was similar to the one we often hear “if you give people money they will not work”. Food Insecurity is a serious problem throughout the world especially now during a global pandemic.