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1 ½ cups all purpose flour

½ cup white rice flour

½ cup white granulated sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into about 16 pieces

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

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1. Preheat oven to 350F (regular bake/not fan-assisted), with rack in centre of the oven. Line an 8-inch square metal baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an inch or so overhanging the sides to use as handles to remove the cookies later. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the all-purpose flour, rice flour and sugar. Add the cold butter cubes and mix on low speed for several minutes, until the butter is broken down into small, even-sized pieces. Mixture will usually be loose and sandy, but if you grab a bit of it and squeeze it, it should form a clump.

3. Dump mixture into your prepared baking pan. Using a kitchen spatula, press mixture firmly into the pan. Try to get the top as even as you can.

4. Bake in preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until set, but not with any browning around the edges at all. Remove from oven and let stand for ONLY 10 minutes. Using a sharp knife, cut into 16 pieces (1-inch wide x 4-inches long). Using a fork, press fork twice into each of the 'sticks', if you like, making sure to press right through the cookie to the bottom of the pan.

5. Grab a baking sheet. Very carefully, using the parchment overhang as handles, lift the cookies out of the pan on the parchment paper. Set onto baking sheet with parchment paper still underneath. Using a fork, gently slide the cookie sticks apart, so there is a bit of space between each piece.

6. Return to the 350F oven, BUT IMMEDIATELY TURN THE OVEN OFF! Let sit on the baking sheet in the still-warm oven for 30-45 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.

7. Once cooled, store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Storage and Freezing

Shortbread cookies only get better with age, so my preference is to simply store them at room temperature in an airtight container, such as a cookie tin. They will keep well for several weeks, so don’t hesitate to make ahead.

While you can freeze these cookies, I always find that cookies tend to pick up some freezer flavours or slightly change in texture. As shortbread keeps so well at room temperature, for a quite long period of time, I would only freeze for much longer storage circumstances.

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Recipe tips!

If your butter has a lot of moisture (less expensive butter tends to have more water in it), your dough may be more moist than is shown here. The cookies will still be fine, but with a slightly different texture.

For the final cooking period (with the oven off), leave in the oven for 30 minutes for crisp, but still light-coloured cookies or 45 minutes for crispier, lightly golden cookies. I personally find about 40 minutes just perfect.

If you like, you can sprinkle a little white sugar on top of your cookies before the final baking.

As these cookies have a very fine texture, they are quite fragile and prone to breaking as you work through making them. If you are just making for yourself, no worries if one or two break, but if making these as a gift, consider cutting smaller pieces (1-inch x 2-inch maybe) or even squares, so they will be less likely to break.

If you find your cookie sticks break in the middle, you can often “repair” them before the final cooking by simply pressing the two pieces together well. They will often mend together during the final bake.

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