Easy Scottish Shortbread Cookies from Amanda Flower

 

A warm welcome to Amanda Flower who has a new book out! FLOWERS AND FOUL play takes place in Scotland, and poor Amanda had to take a trip there to get the scoop on magical gardens and shortbread!

Don't miss her giveaway at the bottom of the post!

When I was in Scotland researching Flowers and Foul Play, I think I may have eaten my weight in Scottish shortbread cookies. It seemed to me there was a Walkers Shortbread shop in every city I visited and even in many of the villages. When I went back to my B&B for the night after a day of research, I found that the maid put a piece of shortbread on my pillow. I became accustomed to having shortbread and tea every evening before bed, and I felt VERY Scottish, even though I don’t actually have a drop of Scottish blood in me.

Of course, you can buy Walkers shortbread here in the U.S., but after my trip to Scotland, I thought I would try my hand at making it. Enjoy this recipe inspired by my travels to research Flowers and Foul Play, the first in the Magic Garden Mysteries set in Scotland. My protagonist Fiona Knox inherits a magical garden in Scotland just in time to solve a murder!

Easy Scottish Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (softened)

4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar

9x 13 inch pan

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cream brown sugar and butter together.
3. Add half of the flour to the butter and sugar and begin to knead, slowly added the rest of the flour as you knead until the consistency is a little like Play-Doh.
4. Press dough firmly into a 9x13 inch pan and prick up and down the dough with a fork.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until a light golden brown.
6. Cut while still warm and cool cookies on a wire rack.
7. Enjoy with a cup of tea! Scottish breakfast is my favorite!

Amanda Flower, a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning mystery author, started her writing career in elementary school when she read a story she wrote to her sixth grade class and had the class in stitches with her description of being stuck on the top of a Ferris wheel. She knew at that moment she’d found her calling of making people laugh with her words.  In addition to being an author, Amanda is librarian in Northeast Ohio. Flowers and Foul Play is the first novel in her Magic Garden Mystery Series set in Scotland.

Amanda is giving away a copy of FLOWERS AND FOUL PLAY to one lucky person who leaves a comment here. Giveaway closes at midnight eastern time on Tuesday.