
Veronica is a born and raised Italian. She inherited her…
Just like the original Scottish version, this recipe uses simple ingredients, but substitutes in rice flour to make it gluten free.
By Veronica Lavenia
Scottish in origin, shortbread was once only served during Christmas and New Year’s Eve. In its most basic form, the recipe is made with only butter, sugar, vanilla and flour.
The secret to making a good shortbread is to use a high quality butter and pure vanilla extract. My gluten free twist, made with rice flour, will melt in your mouth.
- 250 g (9 oz) high quality butter
- 100 g (3½ oz-½ cup) light brown sugar
- 500 g (1 Ib/2 oz) rice flour
- 1 tbsp rice milk
- 1 tsp "Bourbon" organic vanilla powder
- Work the butter with sugar until creamy.
- Add rice flour, rice milk and vanilla, kneading until a firm dough.
- Roll out the dough and form shape with stencils.
- Lay the cookies (biscuits) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake at 180°C/ 350°F/gas 4 for 15 minutes.

Veronica is a born and raised Italian. She inherited her love for travel, passion for cooking and natural, sustainable, healthy slow food from her parents. Her works have appeared in 'Vegetarian Living', 'Veggie Magazine', 'Lifestyle food', 'Australian Good Food & Travel Guide', 'Chickpea' and 'Free from Heaven', among others. She is the author of "Panini: the simple tastes of Italian style bread"; 'The Rustic Italian bakery", "The Vegetarian Italian Kitchen" and "A Modern Italian table", published by New Holland Publishers Australia.
The biscuits just fell apart