In some ways, this title is redundant, since shortbread's invention is attributed to the Scottish. However, like many lauded edibles, since its development many other areas of the world have tried their own hand at shortbread. But I'll be tackling some of the "O.G." shortbread, as it were, and one of the most popular, if not the most popular brands--Walkers. I was able to locate two kinds of their wares at my local Shop Rite--the plain, and the one with salted caramel and chocolate chunks.
The question of exactly when, and exactly who, invented shortbread can't be precisely answered. The when is reported to be the 12th century, and the who is persons unknown. The precursor to shortbread was common--the twice baked bread known as "rusk." (For more on rusk, or other twice baked concoctions, see my posts on November 3, 2018, April 13, 2019, and May 11, 2019.) Somewhere along the line, people started adding butter, and sugar, and made the crumbly, dessert-style pastry that we know today. It is known who was the first person to publish a recipe for shortbread, though. This was a Scottish woman, named Mrs. McLintock. (I'm not 100% sure that she was a real person, and not a made up name, and I also couldn't find out her actual first name, just her married moniker.) Her book, "Mrs McLintock's Recipes for Cookery and Pastry-Work" was put out in 1736. I was planning to insert a joke about this nearly 300 year old book being unfortunately out of print, but I happened to look it up on Amazon. And, lo and behold, you can order this book, as a Iseabail MacLeod reproduced it in 1991. When I checked 11 copies were still available, starting at a little over $30, not including tax and shipping. (Weird conspiracy theory, based on the reproduction author's surname, and too many viewing of "Highlander"--is it possible that Mrs. McLintock is an immortal, and just put out the 20th century version of her old cookbook herself?!) Anyway, shortbread sales boomed, both in Scotland and elsewhere. In fact, we just passed Scotland's National Shortbread Day, as it was on January 6th.
Walkers (not a typo--they don't include the apostrophe) was started in 1898, by the 21 year old Joseph Walker, in the Speyside village of Aberlour. His bakery flourished, and his shortbread in particular was a huge selling item. His company managed to weather the rationing and upheaval during World War II, and by the 1970's was exporting to over 60 countries around the globe. Like a lot of the companies that I report on, Walkers seems very concerned with being receptive to other diets, religious practices, environmentalism, and health concerns. Their products are kosher and vegetarian appropriate (but not vegan safe, given their frequent use of butter), and their milk comes from free-range cows, which are not given growth hormones or antibiotics. Walkers also follows the Ethical Trading Initiative, and uses sustainable palm oil. They even have a couple of gluten-free products. Besides shortbread, the company also markets oatcakes, biscuits and cookies, cakes and tarts, and crackers. The official Walkers website includes a "Gender Pay Gap Report,"too, if you're interested. Also, I may have made this type of observation before, but I clicked on the "cookie policy" section on the website, and was amused to see it was about the computer data collecting cookies, and not a manifesto about the dessert kind.
Walkers shortbread cookies. These were about 7 cm. by 2 cm. (about 2.75 inches by .75 inch), rectangular in shape, yellowish-brown in color, with holes on top. They were thick, crunchy, and rich. Very buttery. Good. Not awesome, but still solid. Pricey though--there were only 8 biscuits in the box, which cost about $4.00.
Walkers shortbread cookies, salted caramel and chocolate chunk. These were round, with a diameter of about 2.25 inches (about 5.5 cm.), and with a yellowish-brown color and visible caramel and chocolate pieces. I could definitely taste the caramel and chocolate additions. And their sweetness significantly helped--I enjoyed these more than the plain shortbread. Very good overall.
In closing then, I can recommend Walkers shortbread cookies/biscuits, especially the caramel/chocolate chunk kind. And Walkers itself seems like they're trying to be a fair and morally responsible company as well. Really, my only complaint is that they don't use a logo of a fantastic, absurd, indigenous legendary monster, like the Calbee company from last week.
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