Origins of Shortbread: A Scottish Delicacy

This delicate biscuit or is it a bread? It has been for centuries what the Scots have treated as their own little luxury bakery product, which was used in the past on high days and holidays as something a little special.

The origins of shortbread can be traced back to about the 12th Century when butter or lard was added to bread dough, thus the name shortbread. It was not until the 17th Century when sugar was introduced to the UK that it became more of a sweet biscuit, as we know it today. It probably had the same derivations as the American ‘shortnin bread’ or shortcake, which uses fat or shortening in the recipe.

Earlier shortbread’s had decorations added to them such as caraway seeds, lemon peel and nuts. These decorations appear to have died out in today’s shortbreads and it is the flavour of the butter and its cooking methods that give the product its distinctive characteristics.

Shortbread in the past was used mainly for festive occasions such as weddings and at Hogmanay, where they were made into large round bannocks or rectangles, then broken into even chunks and served on an ashet. This was once a “brides cake” (a sort of shortbread) baked by the brides mother. A tradition with the shortbread was to break it over the head of the bride, as she crossed the threshold of her new home – if it broke into small pieces, the marriage would be fruitful. The custom of both bride and groom cutting the cake is recent - it used to be just the bride. Thankfully the high butter content makes the shortbread very fragile and would not hurt those on the receiving end.

Everyone got a piece of cake and also sending a piece of cake to all who had given a present became the norm.

It was from the shape of the frills of the Edinburgh ladies who were having shortbread for their court afternoon teas, whose dresses that the name petticoat tails was derived.

Shortbread today is as popular as ever, with the demand coming not only from its use as an everyday delight with a cup of tea or coffee, but as a gift from Scotland for the ever hungry tourists who buy the product each year by the thousands of tons.

There are a great many different recipes for shortbread, which have been developed over the years, as each baker in a different area had their own ideas of how a good shortbread should taste. Different ingredients may be included other than the basic flour, and sugar.

Browsing through recipe books you find combinations of butter, margarine, semolina, corn flour, rice flour, ginger, vanilla essence and other flavourings.

In recent years the manufacturing of shortbread has moved out from being part of the local bakers range of biscuits, to becoming a large manufactured product and many successful businesses have been developed in Scotland producing tons of this popular delicacy.

Amongst these successful companies are Dean’s of Huntly whom are now based in a modern production facility on the outskirts of the town of Huntly , producing a premium quality hand-baked shortbread from the ‘melt in the mouth’ recipe, which was developed by Mrs Helen Dean.

Helen Dean started making shortbread in her own kitchen to raise funds for the local pipe band in 1975.