Homemade Shortbread Biscuits

Use either a stand-mixer or hand-held electric beaters to cream together the butter and the sugar.

Mix the flour, the corn-starch and the salt and stir into the cream mixture. 

With your hands, bring the dough together in the bowl by simply squeezing it gently together and pressing the crumbly bits at the bottom of the bowl. Then, using your hands, shape it into a ball.

Lay the dough onto a baking tray (preferably rectangle) covered in parchment paper. Use your hands to  make it flat. The dough is so soft so should be easy to manipulate.  Gently roll out until the paste is 1 cm thick. 

Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to score the dough into rectangles. Make sure your lines are wide enough that a fork can prick them (mine were about 6cm x 2.5cm).

Prick holes with a fork to all over the dough in straight lines. Don't push the fork all the way through the dough, you just want to go about half way.

Chill the dough on the baking tray for 30-60 minutes. By doing this, the butter won't melt out when it hits the hot oven and the cookies will retain their shape. 

Preheat the oven to 160 oC static. Bake shortbread for 40-50 minutes until it is just starting to turn golden brown on the outer edges, it will still be very pale on top. Remove from the oven.

For clean slices, try to cut your shortbread while it is still hot. Score out the lines patterns with a sharp knife and cut out shortbread into rectangles into the tray. Allow to cool completely before snapping the shortbread into pieces.