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Perfect shortbread, ever wondered how to get your shortbread to taste just like those top selling dainty biscuits in your local store? Nearly everyone has their own way of doing so, usually making the simple basic recipe into something difficult to remember, and a lot more complicated than it needs to be.

This is a very old family secret, and one which I could use to sell our shortbread in stores if I was inclined to do it. The truth is by keeping it simple as it was always intended to be is how to create the perfect results.

Before we start with the secret to perfect shortbread, lets get a few of the common mistakes out of the way first.

Firstly, shortbread should be presented in biscuits no thicker than ½ cm. You
can get away with up to 1/4 inch in thickness, but ½ cm is best.

Never overcook shortbread. It should always be taken from the oven just as it has become crispy and just starting to lightly change colour.

Here is the recipe.

You will notice that it varies from the standard well known basic shortbread recipe only in one minor detail, and it is that detail which makes all the difference.

Prepare a baking sheet lightly greased with butter.
Preheat the oven to 150ºC (Gas Mark 2)

5 oz of plain flour
1 oz of Quaker Porridge Oats (crushed to flour consistency)
4 oz of butter at room temperature
2 oz of castor sugar

When you have prepared the Oats, mix thoroughly with the flour before proceeding to make the shortbread. Then just beat the butter to a soft consistency with a wooden spoon in the normal manner. Add the sugar bit by bit while continuing to beat the butter, finally adding the flour mix little by little just like you did with the sugar.

You should now have a paste which you transfer to a board very lightly dusted with castor sugar and quickly and lightly roll to ½cm in thickness. Lightly dust the rolling pin with sugar if necessary).

Cut to biscuit shapes with your chosen cutter, and place in the oven. 30 minutes cooking time is the absolute maximum, and you should start watching for the colour change at 20 minutes, and be prepared to pull the biscuits before they become too dark. You want a dark cream colour ideally.

Cool the biscuits on a wire rack and lightly dust again with castor sugar to finish.
Of course store them in an airtight container when cool to keep them crisp.

That’s it. Perfect shortbread quickly and easily. You’ll impress your friends and they’ll be begging you to know the secret.

Tags: shortbread, perfect shortbread, perfect shortbread recipe



Add to Onlywire

This is a low fat key lime cheesecake recipe. If you are a cheesecake fan, I would strongly recommend this recipe. If you are a diabetic then this would be a good recipe to try as well. You can substitute the sugar with Splenda and it is still a great recipe. I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Ingredients to make to the crust:

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup of fat free margarine, or butter if you must

Ingredients to make the cheesecake filling:

16 ounces fat free sour cream

3 packages of 8 ounces of room temperature fat free cream cheese

1/4 Cup of fat free milk

1 cup sugar or sugar substitute

2 teaspoons of a good vanilla bean paste

1/3 cup of key lime juice

1 9″ spring cheesecake pan

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9 inch spring form pan with cooking spray. You will mix your graham crackers and margarine, or butter. Mix until incorporated. You will then want to add your graham cracker crumb mixture very evenly over bottom or your spring pan. In a large stainless steel mixing bowl you will mix together the fat free cream cheese, sugar or sugar substitute, and vanilla bean paste. I will start out on a low speed, until blended. I will then increase the speed and whip the mixture until it is very creamy, and smooth. After the first set if ingredients are incorporated, I will add my key lime juice and continue to mix thoroughly. Then you will add the milk, and finish mixing all items together until it is very smooth in texture. If your mixture is too runny, you may want to add more cream cheese.

**Helpful tips**

You can use a food processor if you like, if you do not have a hand held mixer. I prefer a hand held because it is easier on the clean-up.

Ready to bake off your Key Lime Cheesecake: After you have your spring pan ready, and your filling made it is time to put them together. You will need to get a spatula to scrape the bowl after you pour the creamy filling into prepared pan. You will scrape any extra filling into the pan, unless you want to sample your filling. This is not a bad idea. You can adjust for any flavorings you would like to add at this time. Some prefer a sweeter taste, or maybe more vanilla or Key lime juice. So, you can add at this time to suit your needs.

You will then need to add your cheesecake filling into the spring pan. After the filling is in the spring pan you will transfer the spring pan, to larger pan and add a water bath. The water will need to be about 1-2 inches up the side of the spring pan to prevent burning. You will need to check after about 30 minutes, and bake until center puffs and is almost set. Remove from oven, and the water bath. If you have a cooling rack let cool until cool to the touch, and then put into the refrigerator and chill completely. You can add fruit to your dish if you like for garnish. It makes a beautiful presentation if you decide to do so. I hope that you enjoy this dessert recipe.

Tags: lime cheesecake, low fat recipe

by Norm Butler

There are many different shrimp recipes that you can prepare yourself in under 10 minutes. Talking about the popular seafood people from all over the world has a great demand and craze for the delicious shrimp meat. It is the only sea food that lets you play with all the spices.

Shrimp recipes are in huge demand as they are very delicious and yummy! All them are recommended by dietitians because of balanced fat that is contained by the shrimp.

People from various countries and cultures have made so many recipes using shrimps. If you are a big time seafood lover then you are bound to place these recipes first in your preferred list of seafood. Shrimp’s meat gives soft, sweet taste and a pleasing touch. Shrimp recipes take very less time to get prepared that is the main reason recipes prepared from shrimps are very much used by people that have less time to cook because of their hectic and busy life.

They not only take less time to cook them, but they also give you the proper nutrients that are required. Some recipes include shrimp salads; shrimp stir fry, shrimp scampi, garlic shrimp recipe, shrimp pasta, shrimp coconut, Cajun shrimp recipe and much more, more than 600 different recipes are available all over the world, Chinese shrimp recipes and Japanese shrimp recipes are large in numbers.

The most popular among these all recipes is scampi, stir fry, shrimp toast and Cajun. Scampi has two further types of recipes that are shrimp scampi 1 and scampi 2– both have equally delicious taste, but use different methods to cook. Asian grilled shrimp is also one of the delicious recipes you would ever love to use for its yummy taste, though it takes some time to get cooked but taste covers the time gap entirely.

Mostly people go for shrimp toast as it gets ready very quickly all you need is bread slices and roasted shrimp to get it ready.

For all the shrimp recipes it is very important to make sure you do not overcook shrimp, if you do so it will get dry and rubbery and will not give you the proper taste that you are looking for, Cook it to the point where its flesh turns opaque. Cooking shrimp in the shell gives more flavors than shrimp peeled off before cooking. It is the only sea food that gives you the liberty to play with all the spices.

You can mix shrimp with any other form of food and yet it stays healthy. There is a recipe for drink called shrimp cocktail and is very popular among the people, cocktail is very easy to prepare and takes very less time, it is very healthy and full of nutrients.

To get step by step preparation instructions for over 40 shrimp recipes go to: http://ShrimpRecipe.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Norm_Butler

Tags: shrimps, shrimp dishes, seafood