Hello!

If you follow @thebakeryden on Instagram or Facebook, you may have read that we have been recipe testing this week, and we can happily say that here's the result!

So, whilst we have welcomed a new puppy in to our home - his name is Teddy, and he likes to run around  and play with his fox toy...we have also found time to do a bit of experimenting in the kitchen.

I have tried making gluten free shortbread before, copying recipes which I have found online, but they were never...quite right. Not like how I remember shortbread, before being wheat-free. Back in those days, I made a mean shortbread biscuit - crumbly, and buttery, it was just yummy. But the gluten free ones I made in the past were either solid as a rock, and hard to chew, or just really soft.

But, I decided to try making some again. Only this time, my job would be even more difficult, as I was going to be making them dairy free as well.

Choosing the dairy free butter was easy - I knew to get the right buttery-ness (not sure that's a word), I couldn't use margarine, so I opted for Stork baking block. It's the one in the gold foil wrapper.

For the sweetener, we stayed nice and simple here with caster sugar. And then dusted with icing sugar once cooked and cut.

Deciding on what flour to use was the only real decision I had to make. I finally settled on a combination of Freefrom Plain flour, and Rice flour. The plain flour is the staple for a biscuit, but gluten free plain flour, I find anyway, is a bit sketchy when you bake it - sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. When combined with the rice flour though, gives a slightly crisper texture, and the result? A lovely, crumbly shortbread!

The recipe is so, so easy, and takes less than an hour from start to finish. Plus, it's easily adaptable, if you want to throw in some chocolate chips or anything else - you just mixed it all together in one bowl - simple.

Ingredients

• 300g Dairy free butter (or your normal butter if df isn't required)

• 150g Caster sugar

• 300g FreeFrom plain flour

• 150g Rice flour (gf)

• 1 tsp vanilla extact

• 1 tsp icing sugar to dust

Method

1. Grease and line a square baking tin and set the oven to 170ºC.

2. In a large bowl, combine the butter, sugar, flour and vanilla. I find the best way is with your hands, until it all comes together and a dough is formed. This would also be the stage to add any additions e.g. chocolate chips.

3. Tip the dough in to the lined baking tin, and carefully flatten, and push towards the corners.

4. Once it is levelled, and you are happy, pop the shortbread in the oven for 30-45 minutes. The time will depend upon the thickness in the tin. Ours was quite thick so it took over 40 minutes. But keep an eye on it, so that it doesn't burn at the edges.

5. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. 

6. With a sharp knife, first score lines where you will cut. As the shortbread will still be warm, it will be soft enough to cut without breaking up. Then gently and slowly cut the shortbread in to fingers - how many, and size, is entirely up to you. We made 20 fingers.

7. Once cooled, they will be at their crispiest, so they are best eaten on the day of baking. 

8. If storing overnight, wrap in tinfoil, or store in a cake tin - don't put in to a plastic Tupperware box, as they will become soft very quickly.

That's it! So easy, and so yummy! We hope you try making these, and enjoy them as much as we have.

Holly @ TBD x