Name: Gluten-Free Shortbread
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 16 servings
Cuisine: Scottish
Ingredients: 225 g cold butter, cubed; 90 g icing sugar; ¼ tsp salt; 200 g white rice flour; 100 g cornflour; 1 tbsp caster sugar, for sprinkling

Gluten-Free Shortbread

Buttery shortbread made with rice flour and cornflour in place of wheat, pressed into a tin and baked for 20 minutes at 160C.

35 min total Serves 16 servings Easy

Where This Goes Wrong

Use certified gluten-free cornflour.

Cut the fingers while warm.

Cool in the tin: the shortbread is fragile.

Cooking Gluten-Free Shortbread

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Heat the oven to 160°C / 320°F. Line a 20 cm square tin with baking paper.
Rub the butter into the rice flour, cornflour, icing sugar and salt until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Press into a ball.
Press the dough into the tin and prick all over with a fork.
Bake for 20 minutes until pale gold at the edges.
Cut into 16 fingers while warm, sprinkle with the caster sugar and cool in the tin.

Why the Method Works

Shortbread is perhaps the easiest classic biscuit to make gluten-free, because it has almost no gluten structure to replace. Its whole identity is short, crumbly and sandy, and gluten works against that. Rice flour has been used in shortbread for generations, especially in Scotland, where it gives the biscuit its characteristic fine, sandy bite.

The flour is a mix of white rice flour and cornflour, with a little icing sugar. Rice flour on its own can be gritty, so the cornflour smooths it out. A ratio of two parts rice flour to one part cornflour produces a tender biscuit with a melting texture. Check that the cornflour is certified gluten-free, as some are processed alongside wheat.

Rub the butter in with your fingertips. Cold butter, cubed, worked into the flours and sugar until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, then pressed together into a ball. Overworking the dough makes it greasy and tough. If it will not come together, add a teaspoon of cold water.

Press into a tin, prick with a fork and bake low, at 160°C / 320°F, until pale gold. Cut into fingers while warm and let it cool in the tin, as the shortbread is very fragile when hot. Sprinkle with caster sugar while warm.

Leftovers, Reheating and Keeping

Keeps in an airtight tin for 2 weeks.

Good With

Hot tea
Coffee
Fresh berries
Cheese