Last Updated on March 13, 2025
At this time of the year, I like to make my own shortbread. Homemade, this very simple almond shortbread biscuit seems lighter and more buttery (though actually, it’s a bit of a diet breaker!). Made into petticoat tails, it’s a great accompaniment to fresh berries – strawberries if you can eat them or raspberries for me. And it’s one of the first recipes I learnt to cook! We had a small kitchen at boarding school and used to spend our free time creating sweet treats that could be made from very few ingredients. Alpen flapjacks were one option – we hid extra portions of Alpen and butter from breakfast in our blazer pockets and then simply added sugar from the pantry to make a delicious, sticky flapjack. Shortbread was another favourite. Again, the butter was taken from the school canteen in those tiny individual portions. We’d bring the flour in a jamjar from home, and there was always sugar around for our evening cups of cocoa. Classic shortbread is just sugar, butter and flour in the ratio 1:2:3 by weight. So you can easily add other ingredients to mix it up a bit.
Remembering the basic shortbread ratio, my almond shortbread is made with 60g of golden caster sugar, 120g of butter and 180g of ‘flour’. But the ‘flour’ is a mix of plain flour and two other secret ingredients. I’ve used 50g of ground almonds for a lovely nutty flavour and 30g of cornflour to help make the shortbread really light. You could replace the cornflour with semolina or rice flour if you like a really crisp shortbread, but I prefer that melting, crumbly texture you get with cornflour.
To make up the almond shortbread, all you have to do is cream together the sugar and butter, then carefully fold in the remaining ingredients before using your hands to make a rough dough.
Don’t try to knead the dough because you’ll end up with a gluey texture if you do that; the glutens you WANT to release when you make bread are really not needed in shortbread. You can use a rolling pin to roll the dough out and cut shapes, but I find it easier to make Petticoat Tails.
Shortbread is a traditional Scottish recipe that dates back to before the 12th century. There are three traditional shapes. Individual ‘shortbread rounds’ make great gifts because they pack up easily. Shortbread fingers are made by forming a thickish square or oblong slab of the dough and then cutting ‘fingers’ once it has cooked. Petticoat tails, my favourite, are made by forming a large round (I use a sponge tin with a removable base for this) which is divided into segments when the biscuits are cooked.
It’s thought that the name petticoat tails does indeed come from a special petticoat that was popular in the reign of the cousins Elizabeth 1 and Mary Queen of Scots. The pattern for the petticoat was called a tally, and the biscuits were thus called ‘petticoat tallis’. In fact, some people credit Mary Queen of Scots with popularising the biscuits, which she’s said to have particularly enjoyed flavoured with caraway seeds. Another theory about the name ‘petticoat tails’ is that it’s a bastardisation of the French petites gatelles (“little cakes”). From the age of 6, Mary was brought up to become the Queen Consort of France, in France where she became fluent in French and married the Dauphin Francois. So, it’s quite feasible that these are actually ‘little cakes’
Want to try my almond shortbread for yourself?
Here’s the recipe I use – if you prefer a crunchy rather than melting shortbread, use rice flour instead of cornflour!
Almond Shortbread
Ingredients
- 120 g butter
- 60 g golden caster sugar
- 50 g ground almonds
- 100 g plain flour
- 30 g cornflour
Instructions
- preheat the oven to 160C
- butter a cake tin with a removable bottom
- in a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy (I use an electric hand mix on low)
- fold in the other ingredients
- use your fingers to pull the mixture together into a rough ball and gently knead if necessary to mix completely. Be careful not to over handle the dough at thi stage
- put the dough ball in the centre of the cake pan and use your fingers to spread the mixture out. Alternatively, flour a pastry board and roll out carefully into a round
- prick the shortbread all over with a fork
- bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes until the shortbread is lightly golden and pulling away from the edge of the pan
- let the shortbread rest for 5 minutes in the pan, then carefully mark out eight segments
- remove the shortbread from the pan carefully. I take the base and shortbread out, then use a palate knife to remove each segment.
- Allow to cook completely on a rack before storing in an airtight tin lined with kitchen paper
Nutrition
Looking for something different? Do try these ginger and chocolate chip cookies.
Delicious
Hi Fiona,
I would like to make this, but I see in the ingredients it says “almonds” and in the instructions there is no mention of processing the almonds down. I assume very fine is best, so I’m wondering if I can use store-bought almond flour instead of grinding my own?
Thanks in advance for the clarification! -Erin
off to edit! It should say ‘ground almonds’ – which is what I use here in the UK and what I can buy easily! – I haven’t tested it with almond flour which is a little finer I think, but not commonly sold here.
If you do try, let me know how it works – I would think it should be perfect
I love shortbread. Will give this version a try. I like the different versions how it got its name of petticoat tails.
This shortbread looks amazing! Will be great served with berries and a cup of tea.
Insanely buttery, flaky, and delicious!
I need to try this! Sounds delicious
That looks delicious, a friend of mine bakes shortbread which is lovely, but this recipe might even top hers.
So easy so delicious
I really like the look of this – I love shortbread
May I suggest instead of putting the dough inside the cake tin I turn the tin upside down and put a little baking paper and put the mixture ontop and press it nearly to the edge. Cooks very well. I enjoyed your recipe but prefer shortbread without the almond meal. 😋
lol you can’t really make almond shortbread without almond flour though? I would find your ‘method’ more complicated – and without the sides of the cake tin, the edges are likely to be ragged.
I made this into just plain drop cookies. I used rice flour. They are very nice but not the least bit almondy.
Thank you! It’s amazing! Added a drop of almond extract, salt an lemon zest. Sorry, I realise it feels almost like a different recipe, but it was amazing!! Should have done the petticoats- tried flowers but there’s a lot of butter in😂 but the taste!!! And the texture! Amazing! Off to try for the second time:-)
Thanks, for this recipe, I had all these ingredients except the corn flour, mixed up for a crumble that went wrong. So now have a few good sized biscuits.
We followed the ratio you provided ( 1:2:3 ) to make Hazelnut Shortbread. We roasted hazelnuts in the shell for 20mins at 100C then ground them and blended them with flour a ratio of 1:2 hazelnuts to flour.
The biscuits came out beautifully and my only criticism is that your basic recipe makes such a small batch. You should double the amounts.
LOL, well that’s a compliment! I don’t make big batches because I tend to eat the lot!!!
Love shortbread and in a moment I’m going to get off the sofa and make this recipe which sounds delicious