A Short History of Shortbread - Ackroyd's Scottish Bakery

A Short History of Shortbread

Since we started baking around 75 years ago, shortbread has been an essential part of our history. The historical background of Shortbread goes back much further, though. Around the 12th century, "biscuit bread," believed by historians to be first shortbread, was commonplace. In the spirit of limiting waste, leftover dough from baking bread was dried out at low temperatures. Oftentimes, the bread was seasoned with spices and sugar to give a more appealing taste. Biscuit means "twice baked," and eventually the leftover bread scraps were replaced with the shortbread we know today.

Of course replacing scraps with more expensive luxury ingredients like butter and sugar made shortbread a special occasion treat. In Scotland, shortbread is often eaten at New Year's. Mary, Queen of Scots, loved shortbread. Her fondness of "petticoat tails," or thin crispy shortbread flavored with caraway seeds, is widely referenced. She is often attributed with starting shortbread's popularity. Shortbread cookies are our most popular sweet. Our basic recipe contains just 3 ingredients: flour, salted butter, and sugar.

While there is no wrong shortbread shape, our version is traditional shortbread fingers. We have a variety of shortbread flavors available. Our goal is elevate the humble shortbread cookie to new heights by showing its range a canvas for flavor. 

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.