Gluten Free (But They'll Never Notice) Shortbread

This week I got an order for gluten free shortbread for a graduation, decorated as sparkly stars and champagne bubbles. I love shortbread; it's buttery, crunchy, crumbly and not too sweet. My All Butter Shortbread recipe is an all time favourite but I was a little worried about how the gluten free version would match up. Turns out I had nothing to worry about, the crumb structure was perfect and the cookies were just as buttery and delicious as the usually are. 

This cookie recipe gave me a chance to get three firsts over and done with. It was my first time covering cookies with fondant and my first time flood icing. The order was covered with fondant; pale lilac for the stars and cream/ivory for the champagne bubbles and I also used edible glitter for the first time to sparkle up the stars. 

With the remaining dough I decided to make some cookies to celebrate the end of exams/start of summer. I flood iced them with blue icing and decorated with white. It was a really nice combination and we polished them off lying in the grass in the sun in our back garden. 

Gluten-Free Shortbread

• 350g Gluten-free flour mix
• 220g butter (at room temp)
• 125g caster sugar
• 2tsp xanthan gum
• 1-3 tbsp milk (if necessary, omit if recipe needs to be dairy free)

Preheat oven to 150C, line baking trays with greaseproof paper

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy

In a separate bowl combine the flour and xanthan gum

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well (it will be a little crumbly at this stage, if it is too crumbly add the milk)

When the dough comes together into a ball chill it for 1-2 hours in the fridge

Roll it out to 5mm thick and cut out the desired shapes

Bake for 12-15 mins, until the edges are golden brown

Cool in the tin for 5 mins then cool completely on a wire rack

Decorate as desired when the cookies are totally cooled :)