Day 0 - Canada Cornstarch Shortbread by Grandma

Shortbread is a holiday staple. I found this full proof shortbread recipe when I was younger on the back of a Canada Cornstarch box and everyone loved it. It’s just a classic shortbread. Nothing wrong with that! When I started looking at cooking with tea I came across an Earl Grey shortbread then a matcha shortbread. That’s when I decided, there needs to be a chai shortbread and then it snow balled into 12 days of shortbread! I started experimenting will all kinds of combinations of additions to the basic Canada Cornstarch shortbread recipe. Then I started recruiting friends and family, and family of friends and friends of family etc to get involved, both trying out shortbread experiments and “submitting” them to me and also trying the results of the shortbread experiments. Flour, butter and many pounds later below are the 12 shortbread recipes that made the cut to 12 days of shortbread. Honourable mention goes to a select few shortbread recipes that were oh so close to making the cut but no such luck. That doesn’t mean they aren’t good enough. They are very special in their own unique way! Those recipes can be found below. Now since this is a tea site each shortbread is paired with a tea. I have no idea if the pairing is ideal but who can go wrong with pairing tea with shortbread? I also included a ketogenic shortbread recipe and a gluten free shortbread recipe. I will be honest, neither measures up to a classic shortbread. The ketogenic shortbread is made with almond flour, which is just ground almonds. It is a very good cookie in its own right but I’m not sure if it’ll make a good base for the other modifications below? The gluten free shortbread is made with coconut flour. I’ll be honest, this one was very dry and hard to work with to even make a cookie ball shape. When it was baked and cooled, it was very hard to swallow as it was very dry. A few people told me this. Perhaps if it was mixed with other flavourful ingredients however, I’m hesitant to try as the batter itself was so dry it barely held its shape long enough to be placed on the cookie sheet for baking. Regardless, these two recipes are given below at the end.

Ingredients

1c flour
1/2 c corn starch
1/2 c icing sugar
3/4 c butter

Directions

Cream together all ingredients
Roll out into 1 inch balls.
Flatten onto cookie tray with fork.
Chill in fridge for 30-60 minutes.
Heat oven to 300F.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown around edges and bottom.

Classic Canada cornstarch recipe ingredients and dough.

References

17 Incredibly Perfect Tea and Biscuit Combinations, Emma Cooke, March 2016, buzzfeed.com, URL: https://www.buzzfeed.com/emmacooke24/digestives-and-breakfast-tea-is-life
The best tea and biscuit pairings, Niamh Ollerton, Nov 2016, lovefood.com, URL: https://www.lovefood.com/news/56428/tea-biscuit-pairings-breakfast-tea-chocolate-hobnob-earl-grey-ginger-nut

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Lani and Norm

I enjoy learning and sharing that knowledge.Sharing has been in many forms over the years, as a teaching assistant, university lecturer, Pilates instructor, math tutor and just sharing with friends and family.Throughout, summarizing what I have learnt in words has always been there and continues to through blog posts, articles, video and the ever growing forms of content out there!