SHORTBREAD GIFT TIN

14 OZ Tin Container

It's always exciting to find a really good product that meets my criteria for quality artisan production, and it's even better when there's a good story behind it. I've always been a fan of shortbread, but only of the homemade kind. The products from the big shortbread companies usually don't satisfy my expectations; they typically have little in the way of buttery flavor or crispiness. So when I was first offered a piece of the Shortbread House of Edinburgh's shortbread, I took it out of politeness, and was I surprised! It was one of the most buttery, crunchiest shortbreads I'd ever tasted, commercial or homemade. The taste and texture were something else, and I immediately inquired about it.

In the early 1980s, Anna Wilson, a Scottish teacher in her early fifties, became sufficiently deaf that she was unable to continue to teach. Unwilling to sit at home, but with little hope of finding employment at her age, she decided to employ herself. Using her mother's recipe she began making shortbread in response to an advertisement for a coffee shop that needed home baked goods. The shortbread was a huge success, and before long the proprietor encouraged her to expand.

First she started a small bakeshop, and then a small factory where she employed an all-female work force, except for Stanley, her part-time deliveryman. Business boomed, especially with top hotels and retail shops. Although it is now made all over the world, shortbread is particularly identified with Scotland, where it was once primarily a holiday treat. The funny thing is that Anna didn't even like shortbread!

Her recipe was no secret, but it did rely on an unusually generous amount of butter and small amounts of two non-traditional ingredients, a bit of vegetable shortening and a bit of ground rice to give her shortbread crunch. She also used hard wheat flour instead of the standard, albeit cheaper, biscuit flour. The most important thing is that the shortbread is handmade with no shortcuts, and no preservatives, and baking to a golden brown, instead of a pale blonde, gives the shortbread a nuttier flavor. The taste is so buttery, and the texture is so crisp and crunchy, it borders on the sublime.

After about five years, Anna felt the business was becoming too much for her. She mentioned it in passing to a customer, Anthony Laing, the son of the chairman of United Biscuits, whose grandfather Alexander Grant founded the firm in 1898. Tired of running a chain of cafés for United Biscuits, he talked his wife, Fiona, a former Merchant Banker, into assisting him in buying Anna's company. However, he wasn't a baker, and, more importantly he wasn't a woman, and that made Anna Wilson reluctant to sell to him. She believed that baking needed a woman's touch, and wasn't sure Anthony would take care of her shortbread and her ladies. But she finally agreed to sell, and to stay on for three months to help with the transition.

They started at 5:30 in the morning each day with Anthony trailing her, and although he had no experience, he proved to be a natural baker. So today Anthony helps the ladies with the baking, and Fiona stays at home to look after their children and handle the accounting and marketing for the company. Their products have become perennial winners at blind tastings and food shows. The Shortbread House of Edinburgh continues to grow while maintaining its handmade style and exclusive market niche.

Packed in a beautiful, blue and gold re-usable gift tin with their signature emblem, the thistle.

We will begin shipping this delicious item November 23rd; if you wish to order other items that you want to ship immediately, please place a separate order.