Tried and tested short, bread recipe?

hi i am wanting to make shortbread with the kids into festive shapes, does anyone have a good recipe! we tried one but the shortbread wasnt very tasty with icing sugar, custard powder,butter and a pinch of salt. any recipes would be great. thanks in advance

I made this one (my regular) today.It can be cut with cookie cutters, but I take the easy route and roll it into logs to slice it into rounds.

CONNIE'S SHORTBREAD (imperial measurements from a Scottish granny!)
8 oz butter
4 ounces caster sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
10 ounces plain Standard flour
2 ounces cornflour

Cream butter and sugar well.Add lemon juice. Sift and add flour and cornflour.Mix and roll into two logs about 30 cm (back into metric!).Cool in fridge for ten minutes.Slice into rounds and place on baking paper on cold oven trays.Prick each with a fork.

Bake for 5 minutes at 180*C then turn oven down to 150*C for 15 mins.Watch that they don't burn.It's better to take them out before they start to brown at the edges.Cool on a rack.

Lately I have been dividing the mixture into four pieces and rolling out four logs 30 cm each to make little button-sized shortbread.Shortbreadis such a rich biscuit that a mini-sized button goes down well.A small jar makes a great Christmas gift.

for shapes short sweet pastry from supermarket is great easy to decorate etc

Lemon Shortbread

300g soft butter
1 cup icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon
3 cups sifted plain flour
Preheat over to 180. Cream butter and sugar and zest. Mix in flour. Form mixture into a ball. It will look dry but that is right. Roll out mixture on lightly floured bench. Cut into shapes. Place on tray lined with baking paper. Pick the shapes and bake for about 20 minutes.

I got this one from a thread and it is really lovely.give it a go

great thanks for these two i will try them both

if you use cutters don't twist the shapes as the layers of dough will not rise.

Two points to add to my post #2:
1. Roll the logs in gladwrap before putting in fridge
2. If you use cookie cutters, roll the dough straight onto baking paper and make cutouts in place, so that you don't have to lift them onto a tray (see tinkagirl #6).Simply pull away the leftover bits at the sides and roll them out again.

I dont using icing sugar or cornflouw. I use flour with a little rice flour which makes it nice and short. It is sweet enough without being sickly. I use my cookie stamps to make the shortbread.