Shortbread

Golfblogger posts the following recipe for Scottish shortbread cookies (this may prove to be a golf blog in the loosest sense of the term):

Ingredients:

4 Sticks Butter
1 Cup Brown Sugar
3 - 3 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour

Leave butter out to soften. Then mix butter and sugar. Add in flour slowly until a dough forms. If it’s too sticky, add a little more flour.

Sprinkle a board with flour, and roll out the dough to a 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into 3 x 1 inch strips, perforating with a fork. Transfer to ungreased cookie sheet

Bake at 325 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes. 

 I absolutely love shortbread and consume quite a bit of it on our Scotland and Ireland treks.  It is employed frequently as car food, and a box of Walker's is often in my golf bag for mid-round sustenance and to share with the caddies.

According to Wikipedia (and if it wasn't true, they couldn't publish it on the Internet), the name derives from the crumbly nature of its texture, which is an obsolete meaning of the word short." 

 Theresa, you with us here?  That doesn't seem like nearly enough butter, but I'll trust your judgment.

Since you asked, the best shortbread I've ever had was at the Londonderry Arms Hotel, on the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland.  Our buddy Lowell Courtney, of the Portrush Courtneys, took us there for afternoon tea on his whirlwind tour of Northern Ireland in 2008.  Readers of my Ballyliffin blog will remember Lowell, and he's sure to make future appearances here.

The Londonderry Arms, above, is most famous for its owner in the 1920's and 30's, Sir Winston Churchill.

The shortbread was so exceptional, that we purchased an additional portion for road (though it was more crumbly than most, and a regrettable amount ended up in my lap) and stopped in for more en route to Royal County Down a few days later.