Shortbread for Christmas

[Paul Henry]

You are missing out if you're making shortbread with white sugar!

Ingredients;
2 cups butter, room temp.
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

heat oven to 325 degrees F.
Cream butter and brown sugar. Add 3 to 3 3/4 cups flour. Mix well.
Sprinkle your board with the remaining flour. Knead by hand for 5 minutes, adding enough flour to make a soft dough.
Roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 3x1 inch strips. Prick with fork and place on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for about 20 minutes.

I've no doubt this might be a good biscuit, but it's not shortbread, which should be hardly coloured when cooked, but the most important thing is , the dough must be worked as little as possible, the fat inhibits the gluten in the flour working, kneading the dough will do nothing but encourage the gluten to work,and in doing so making a firm biscuit when cooked , not the wonderful soft crumble/crunch you get with traditional shortbread.
My family recipe is more or less the same as Anne's of 3/2/1