In its most basic incarnation, shortbread is a simple blend of butter, sugar and flour. That short list of ingredients doesn't reveal how delicious a well-made shortbread can be. It is easy enough to vary the flavour of the basic recipe by adding vanilla, ground ginger, cinnamon or other spices, and you can change the texture by mixing different types of starch with the plain flour - cornflour or rice flour makes a more delicate shortbread. You can also enrich shortbread by adding eggs or ground nuts. The following recipes are all variations on a theme.
Bereshtook nokhochi (Persian shortbread, pictured)
I first ate these exotic biscuits years ago at an expensive food shop in San Francisco that was giving them away as samples. I loved the flavour and delicate texture so much I circled the booth several times so I could taste them again and again. The price was off-putting so I cheated and had a look at the ingredients list. They were made from chickpea flour, butter, sugar and spices, and were easy to duplicate.
125 grams unsalted butter
180 grams chickpea flour (also called
garbanzo bean flour)
70 grams icing sugar
