Who doesn’t love a biscuit? Everyone has their favourites and surely shortbread would be near the top of lots of people’s lists. And thankfully it’s easy to make at home – and very cheap, too.
A baking expert has shown how easy it is to make a tray of delicious shortbread, which works out at just 3p per biscuit. Worcester food firm Brookes Catering regularly posts videos showing how to make delicious treats at home on TikTok, and recently demonstrated how to make shortbread biscuits.
The chef is shown combining 500g of plain flour and 200g of caster sugar in a mixing bowl, before crumbling 375g of pre-softened butter into the mixture.
“Take that to the mixer and what we’re going to do is we’re going to crumb it down into a sort of sandy texture on a low speed,” he said.
Once mixed, the chef stopped the mixer and cracked two eggs, separating the yolks with his fingers.
“I just separate them between my fingers,” he said. “But if you’ve got an egg separator, some people prefer to do it like that.”
Adding the yolks and then a splash of vanilla essence to the mixture, he then returned it to the mixer until it combines to become a dough-like texture.
He split the mixture into two and placed one section on a piece of parchment paper and rolled it into a log between an inch and an inch and a half thick.
“Squash it down a bit to make sure there’s no holes in the middle of the biscuit mix,” he said, then rolled it up in the paper, before moving onto the second piece of dough.
“If you’re making these for the children you can add some little chocolate drops,” he said. “Chocolate drops are better, they tend to melt a bit better.
“If you try and use a chocolate bar the cocoa content’s not strong enough, so it’s not going to melt particularly well. If you’re adding the chocolate drops, obviously your 3p biscuit is going to go up a little bit, but still far cheaper than buying them from the shop.”
He scattered a handful of drops into the dough before rolling it up in parchment paper and puts both logs in the fridge. The chef noted that you can cut them in half if it makes it easier to fit in the fridge.
“Once they’re made they can stay in the fridge for a week and you can have fresh biscuits whenever you need them,” he said.
Once they’re cooled, he unwraps the mix and slices them into biscuits of about half a centimetre thick each, and placed them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
“They can be reasonably close together because they’re not going to spread,” he said. He then puts them in the oven at 180 degrees for between eight and nine minutes.
“You don’t want too much colour on them. Once it’s still warm we’re just going to get a little bit of caster sugar and just sprinkle it over.”
And that’s it – all they need to do is cool and they’re ready to eat.
“These biscuits are great as a treat for the kids when they come home from school,” the chef said. “The plain ones work out at about 3p each.
“The chocolate ones, if you buy the chocolate chips, probably about four to 4.5p, equally cheap. They’re nice and soft in the middle, and really delicious.”
The video has been viewed more than 268,000 times and has attracted more than 100 comments.
One viewer commented: “Just made these today and they were a huge hit with my kids thank you for sharing.”
Another wrote: “I’m not a child but I’ll take the ones with the chocolate drops.” And a third said: “Please don’t stop these videos they’re so helpful.”
But others questioned some of the details of the recipe. One viewer said: “Traditional Scottish shortbread is not made with eggs. With eggs I would call it a cookie or a regular biscuit but not shortbread. Tasty all the same.”
Another said: “48 biscuits? That’s 6p each in butter alone. I haven’t seen butter cheaper than £2 for 250g for a couple of years. I often tot up prices of my baking and it’s an eye opener.”