I’m pretty darn proud of my Scottish heritage. It allows me to love plaid, defend haggis an an actual food item, and sincerely enjoy the sound of the wailing bagpipes. It has led me to half a dozen or so years of highland dance lessons, and on two summer (could have fooled me…) trips to Scotland. I feel it also adds a bit of fuel to my love for shortbread. Ah, shortbread.
Beyond shortbread’s rich, crumbly deliciousness, I also love the tins it comes in. They’re adorable. All wee and plaid, in cute shapes, and always rather heavy with butter and promise. And you can get them in crumbly stick, and they always show up at Christmas potluck buffets. And if you’re me, you might just hang around until the end of the party with the hope of making off with the tin and any leftover shortbread (no? That’s just me? Ok…).
Anyhow, I got this recipe from an old Scottish lady I interviewed for a 7th grade social studies project… and she got it from the cornstarch box. Ha. She actually cut out that step of giving me the recipe and just said “aye, I just use the one on the cornstarch box”. Alrighty then. That was both easy and a bit of a letdown as I’d been hoping for a copy of a weathered family recipe card.
Well, since the 7th grade I’ve made a few changes. They’re good changes, I promise. I started off by deciding to infuse the shortbread with a bit of Canadiana. After all, Canada has heaps of proud Scottish heritage. Both Calgary and Banff are named for Scottish towns of the same names (among many other Canadian towns, cities, and lakes), and it’s not a Canadian tourism video if there isn’t at least one shot of a dude playing the bagpipes. Anyhow, maple syrup was the obvious choice for my Canadian flavour infusion. Be sure to use the super dark stuff so you get loads of maple-y flavour without too much added moisture. I also encrusted the shortbread with maple sugar, because it’s delicious.
When I went to grab the precise recipe off the cornstarch box recently, I was surprised to find it wasn’t there anymore (I suppose it has been well over a decade…). Anyhow, I set off to find it via Google, and was surprised to find that putting cornstarch in shortbread is considered to be a very Canadian thing. How interesting, I had no idea—it’s so commonplace here, and works so well to produce delicate, crumbly shortbread that I assumed everybody did it.
Anywho, I decided to replace the cornstarch with arrowroot starch. You’re welcome to use cornstarch if you like, or if it’s all you’ve got, but arrowroot starch has a lower glycemic index, and is far less likely to be genetically modified (though, of course, there’s a good chance your icing sugar has a bit of cornstarch in it as an anti-caking agent, so watch for that if you’re really fussed). I’ve also always had a soft spot for arrowroot biscuits, despite never being able to quite recreate their characteristically delicious flavour.
The final shortbread biscuits are just divine. Sweet, and buttery, with a delicious hint of maple. Perfect with a spot of tea… or a wee dram of scotch 😉
Scottish Canadian Maple Shortbread
½ cup arrowroot starch
½ cup icing sugar
124g flour (about ¾ cup)210g butter, softened (just under one cup, 14 tbsp)
4 tsp dark maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extractMaple sugar, for rolling
Blend the arrowroot starch, icing sugar, and flour together in a food processor.
Add the butter, maple syrup, and vanilla, and pulse until you have big clods of dough.
Turn the dough out onto a sheet of clingfilm and form it into a log, square or round.
Sprinkle the clingfilm with maple sugar and press it into the log, coating it. Once that’s all done, wrap it up in clingfilm and chill for at least 20 minutes, and up to 24 hours.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 300°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Slice the log of dough into 1cm (1/3″) slices. Place the slices on the cookie sheet and bake for 20–25 minutes, until lightly browned.
Let cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to racks to cool completely. Enjoy!
Thanks for the recipe, I’m looking forward to making a batch of cookies. I love shortbread cookies, I make my greatgrandmother’s recipe all the time. She was English.
You’re very welcome! Shortbread is just such a fantastically delicate dessert item, I love having a few biscuits on hand 🙂
l love anything maple flavored, this recipe sounds delicious. l’m not sure if l’ve ever had shortbread before! My fiance is half Scottish. 🙂
Gasp! Never had shortbread?!? Well, what are you waiting for? 😛
Is it possible to make this gluten free? For example could you use coconut flour instead of regular flour?
I’ll readily admit I know fairly little about gluten free baking as I have no problems with gluten, but from what I do know, gluten-free flours that can be used as a 1:1 swap with all purpose flour are very complicated concoctions. They generally contain a blend of many different types of gluten free starches and flours to attempt to recreate the effect gluten has on baked goods, and sometimes thickeners like xantham gum and guar gum are involved as well. So, I’m going to say no, as I’ve tried to make pancakes with coconut flour instead of AP and they just fell apart without the gluten—I had to add about 5 more eggs and then I just got weird crepes. You are, of course, welcome to try it, but I think you are likely to encounter structure issues.
Just baked these, so yummy. I used honey instead of maple syrup and it still turned out delisious.
So much better then the store bought and it kept my toddler busy by helping me measuring and mixing the ingredients.
Now it’s time to put kids to bed and enjoy my cup of tea with this delisious shortbread 🙂
Oooh, fantastic! And how adorable that your toddler was able to help out 🙂 If you have some flavoured honey, like blueberry or lavender, I bet it would be fantastic with that as well. Enjoy!
Really delicious biscuits and everyone wants some so I cant bake enough of them! I live in Sicily and these biscuits are unique here. I even have the maple syrup that was sent to me from Minnesota! How about savoury ones?! Thank you for the recipes. They are all full-proof.
Ooh, fantastic! I’m thrilled to hear my wee biscuits have gone global, haha 😉 I’m not sure how savory ones would work since the sugar comprises so much of the recipe, but it’s definitely an interesting idea. Hmmmm….
Thanks for reading & baking with me!
I love the addition of maple to this recipe. Looks so great, I’m eager to make my own batch!
Thanks, Connie 🙂 Let me know how they are when you give them a go!
Hi Marie – Sorry it has taken me a while to get around to this! I rather fancy these shortbreads – I love maple syrup!. I used to be a gun at shortbread and then I somehow lost my mojo. I will have to try again… I am interested to see what difference arrowroot starch makes to these – most of my recipes call for rice flour for the texture.
No worries, Jane 🙂 Enjoy these beauties, they are delicate and delicious!
Must try these!! Love shortbread, love maple. And I did not realize you are Scottish. So am I! My grandmother was from Edinburgh … other relatives have been here (US) much longer but originally Scotland. My grandmother landed in Toronto for a while before moving to the US. Don’t know all the details, however. Scots are fiercely stubborn (in a good way, of course) and have to do things by themselves. We are “stubbornly DIY”.
Ah, a fellow Scot 😉 Do let me know how these cookies work out for you! My family has been in Canada for longer than yours from the sounds of it, but I sure do love going back to Scotland—Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities in the world. Sigh.