SCOTCH CAKE (SHORTBREAD)

Historic cookbooks are interesting to read throughout and in the case of Eliza Leslie this is 100% true. You will find lovely recipes -as well as useful tips for preventing culinary disasters- in all of her published works, including Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book (1857). Today's post is dedicated to her Scotch Cake, which is really a shortbread labelled as 'fine cake'.

 

The Highland Wedding by David Allan (1780)

A Scottish cookie of flour, sugar & butter that was usually flavored with spices and baked twice in order to keep well and long was known since the Middle Ages but came into fashion during the Renaissance when sugar and spices were readily available -at least to wealthy families. Short-bread meant its texture was sandy, as opposed to recipes in which the dough was mixed with liquid or yeast. When Scottish immigrants settled in the Colonies during the 1760s and 1770s, shortbread was already recorded in cookbooks. A hundred years later, Eliza Leslie gathered the finest recipes from several places, including the ones which imported cookies from Scotland for everyone's delight and benefit. In her own words:

"SCOTCH CAKE._Take a pound of fresh butter, a pound of powdered white sugar, and two pounds of shifted flour. Mix the sugar with the flour, and rub the butter into it, crumbled fine. Add a heaped table-spoonful of mixed nutmeg and cinnamon. Put no water, but moisten it entirely with butter. A small glass of brandy is an improvement. Roll it out into a large thick sheet, and cut out into round cakes about the size of saucers. Bake them on flat tins, slightly buttered. This cake is very crumbly but very good, and of Scottish origin. It keeps well, and is often sent from thence, packed in boxes."

In modern recipes, the butter and sugar are beaten until very light before the flour is added, which gives shortbread a lighter texture. On the contrary, Miss Leslie's readers were advised to follow the steps for mixing tart dough; the resulting cookie was rather heavy and dense (and nothing like 'fine cake') but still very good.

 

Miss Leslie's Scotch Cake

Variations of shortbread

SCOTCH CAKE (SHORTBREAD)

This is Miss Leslie's recipe, divided by four. I've doubled the amount of spices, which didn't make a great difference, and used slightly more alcohol than Miss Leslie suggested in order to bind the dough.

 

I n g r e d i e n t s

110g butter 

110g sugar, powdered

225g flour

1tsp nutmeg, grated

1tsp cinnamon, ground

30ml brandy

 

M e t h o d

Combine the sugar, flour and spices. Rub in the butter until crumbs are formed. Mix in the brandy, knead lightly, and shape into a ball. On a warm day, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190C. Roll out the dough into a sheet, about 2cm thick. Cut out big round discs and bake on a greased pan for 20-25 minutes. Let cool on wire racks.

 

V a r i a t i o n s

1. Beat the butter and sugar until very light before adding the spices, flour, and brandy. 2. Cut the dough into various shapes instead of round cakes. Make them smaller, if liked. 3. Optionally roll in a mixture of sugar and spices, then bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes.