Jamie's Shortbread

The actual title of this recipe is "The best shortbread in the world".  Modest, huh?  One of my students gave me some shortbread (and a really touching card), and then I had to have more.  How could I go past this, in one of my new cookbooks - Cook with Jamie ?  Although there are variations listed, I started out with the basic version.  Ridiculously easy.

Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
125g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
250g plain flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
125g semolina or cornflour (I used cornflour.  I checked the use-by date on my previous packet - last decade sometime.  New packet bought).

Method:
Preheat the oven to 150C.  Butter a 22cm square tin.  Cream butter and sugar together with a whisk or wooden spoon until pale, light and fluffy.  Add the plain flour and cornflour.  Mix very lightly with a wooden spoon and then your hands until you have a smooth dough.

Transfer your dough to a floured surface and roll it out until it's an even 2cm/1 inch thick all over.  Press the rolled-out dough into your tin, poking it into the corners with your fingers - don't worry about it having to look perfect.  Prick the dough all over with a fork, then pop it in the preheated oven for 50 minutes* until lightly golden.

While it's still warm, sprinkle with a generous dusting of caster sugar.  Allow the shortbread to cool slightly, then cut into 12 chunky finger-sized pieces.

For this baking experience, I don't agree with the 'best in the world' classification.   Mostly due to the thickness - for something that thick, it's actually really hard to eat, much less dunk in a cup of tea (as suggested).  Next time I will use a slightly larger tin so it's a bit thinner - and will hopefully bake in the stated time, at the stated temperature.

*Yeah, that's what it said.  50 minutes and it hardly looked any different from when it went in.  After another 15 minutes, it still wasn't done, so I upped the temperature to 180C and baked the shortbread for a further 10 minutes, then turned off the oven and left it in for another 5 minutes.