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Christmas 2013: top picks for shortbread

Richard Cornish
Richard Cornish

Originally from Scotland, two of its main ingredients, sugar and butter, were traditionally very expensive, so shortbread was reserved for the winter feasts of Christmas and Hogmanay.

A colourful tin is attractive traditional packaging but as this was a blind tasting the judges could not be swayed by a nice tin box. Good shortbread is great and the panelists were looking for biscuits that snapped to prove their freshness yet were still soft to the tooth. They were also tasting the biscuits on the quality of the butter – rancid butter is a no no.

Decorated shortbread is a recent phenomenon, and while a plate adds a splash of colour to the festive table, the icing needs to be finely layered or the shortbread can be overwhelmed.

Rankings:

First: Phillippa's Shortbread Buttons
200g for $11.50 ($57 per kg) Phillippa's stores in Melbourne and Thomas Dux stores

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Small morsel-sized biscuits of shortbread presented in a plastic-wrapped plastic container, they were the least decorative of the shortbread and the loose manner in which they were packaged caused a number to break. The quality of the ingredients was evident, with the taste of fresh butter and the fresh-baked aroma sending these to first place.

Second: Walkers Shortbread
500g decorative tin $15 ($30 per kg), Coles supermarkets and other retailers

The panel thought these shortbread, baked in Scotland by one of the world's most famous bakers, were more like Scotch Finger Biscuits than real shortbread. They reminded one panelist of her great aunts, who bought a tin of these every Christmas. They come in a range of shapes packed inside an attractive tin depicting Eilean Donan Castle in the Scottish Highlands

Third: Cookie Love
225g for $35.90 ($160 per kg), farmhousedirect.com.au

This pack includes delightful yuletide characters such as Santa Claus and reindeer created in coloured icing on shortbread shapes. The quality of the base biscuit was excellent and the artwork and craftsmanship was spot on, justifying the expense. Some panelists found that the layer of icing dominated both the texture and taste of the biscuit, making it too hard and too sweet.

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Fourth: Highland Specialty Shortbread Petticoat Tails
250g for $2 ($8 per kg), Woolworths supermarkets

These shortbread are cheap. And so they should be because, according to the ingredients, they are not made with butter but with vegetable shortening. This raises the question, then, if they are indeed shortbread at all or just shortbread-like biscuits.

Fifth: Duchy Shortbread Petticoat Tails
125g for $10.45 ($83.60 per kg), quality food stores

For such a price, one would expect a lot more. The connection with posh British supermarket Waitrose would also lead you to think you were getting quality. Perhaps even the royal connection (Prince Charles is the founder of the Duchy brand) would be a seal of a virtuous product. Unfortunately, the butter tasted rancid and they were a little too salty for the panel.

Richard CornishRichard Cornish writes about food, drinks and producers for Good Food.

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