A Biscuit With a Story

Petticoat tails are one of those things that sound fancier than they are. Three ingredients, one tin, and a knife to score the dough. But cut them into their distinctive wedges and suddenly you have something that looks genuinely special on a plate. The name itself has been debated for centuries. One theory holds that it comes from the French petites galettes, small flat cakes that Mary Queen of Scots is said to have adored during her time at the French court. The other, equally plausible explanation is simpler: look at one of the finished wedges next to an illustration of a 16th-century petticoat, with its radiating pleats fanning out from a gathered waist, and you can see the resemblance immediately.

What is less disputed is that this style of shortbread, baked as a whole round and cut into segments after baking, is the oldest form we know of. Long before shortbread fingers or individually stamped rounds became the commercial standard, Scottish bakers were pressing dough into a circle, pricking it with a fork, and cutting it into tails to share. Because butter was expensive, shortbread was originally kept for Hogmanay, weddings, and christenings. First-footers at New Year would carry it across the threshold as a gift. That tradition faded as butter became everyday, but the shape stuck around.

Getting the Texture Right

The biggest mistake people make with shortbread is overworking the dough. You want to bring it together just enough to press into the tin, no more. Knead it like bread and you will develop the gluten in the flour, which gives you something closer to a biscuit than the crumbly, sandy texture shortbread should have. Handle it briefly, press it in gently, and let the oven do the rest.

Use proper unsalted butter, at room temperature, and caster sugar rather than granulated. The finer crystals make a real difference to the final texture. Some bakers swap a small portion of the plain flour for rice flour or semolina. Rice flour gives a slightly crisper, more delicate crumb; semolina adds a faint graininess that some people love and others find unnecessary. The recipe below uses plain flour throughout, which produces a classic, melt-in-the-mouth result. If you want to experiment, replace 30g of the plain flour with rice flour.

Score the dough before it goes in the oven, but do not cut all the way through. You want to mark the segments clearly so that when the shortbread comes out hot and still slightly soft, you can run the knife along those lines to separate the tails cleanly. Leave it to cool in the tin completely before lifting the pieces out.

How to Serve Them

Straight from the tin with a cup of tea is the honest answer. Petticoat tails keep well in an airtight tin for up to three weeks, though they tend to disappear long before that. If you want to dress them up slightly, a light dusting of caster sugar while they are still warm adds a faint sparkle. For Hogmanay or Christmas gifting, a stack of tails wrapped in parchment and tied with ribbon is a much better present than anything you will find in a shop tin.

Ingredients

• 225g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small cubes
• 100g caster sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 300g plain flour
• A pinch of fine salt

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160°C (140°C fan, Gas Mark 3). Lightly grease a 20cm loose-bottomed round tart tin or sandwich tin and set aside.
2. Put the butter and caster sugar into a large bowl. Using a wooden spoon or your fingertips, work them together until combined and the mixture looks pale and slightly sandy. Do not beat air into it as you would for a cake; you are just bringing the two together.
3. Add the plain flour and salt. Use your hands to bring the mixture together into a soft dough. It will look crumbly at first but keep pressing and it will come together. Stop as soon as it forms a cohesive dough and do not knead it.
4. Transfer the dough into your prepared tin and use your fingers and the heel of your hand to press it out evenly to the edges. It should be roughly 1cm thick and level across the top.
5. Use a fork to press a decorative pattern around the outer edge of the dough, pushing the tines in at a slight angle to create the traditional frilled border associated with petticoat tails.
   
6. With a sharp knife, score the dough into 8 equal triangles, pressing down firmly but stopping just short of cutting all the way through. Then prick each triangle a few times across its surface with a fork or skewer.
7. Bake in the centre of the oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until the shortbread is a pale golden colour all over. It should not be white in the middle and deep golden at the edges; you want an even, light colour throughout. Check it at 40 minutes and keep an eye on it from there.
8. Remove from the oven and immediately run a sharp knife along the scored lines to cut through completely. Dust lightly with caster sugar if you like. Leave the shortbread to cool completely in the tin before carefully removing the pieces.