Hwæt! We won't have our usual #BakingBookshop treats until normality resumes, but...we'll tweet recipes instead! If you're stuck at home you can make biccies and send us photos. Tamsin's *actual* recipe book looks like this though (!) so here's her Shortbread recipe as a thread👇🏽 
1. This is a recipe from Belgium for Sablés (soft, more crumbly version of shortbread). You need: 250g French salted butter. 100g icing sugar, 1 full teaspoon of vanilla paste or 2 of liquid essence. 350g fine plain flour. Baking trays, rolling pin, cookie cutter and a wire rack.
2. Make sure the butter is very soft, and cream it into the sugar well until it goes more pale and looks a bit fluffy. If you've got an electric whisk or stand mixer that's best. Otherwise, put some welly into it and try to think of it as good exercise. Then beat in the vanilla.
3. Slowly add the flour. I often use fine 00 pasta grade flour (very finely ground), which most supermarkets will have. Flour varies, so take it slow. You need to end up with a nice firm dough that doesn't stick to your hands. This will help your biccies hold their shape.
Roll out your dough, not too thin, and press out your biccies. You can roll it into a ball and squish flat if you prefer. Place them, spaced a little apart, on a baking tray lined with parchment. And pop the trays in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably overnight.
A firm and totally chilled out dough will help your biccies hold their shape in the oven once the heat melts the butter. So really, let all your little biccies chill out with their mates in the fridge for a good while.
When you are ready to bake them put them in a preheated oven (150 degrees, gas mark 2 or lower right Aga) one tray at a time. Oven vary so keep an eye on them - you can always leave them for another 2 minutes to brown, but you can't reverse it if you burn them (obvs)
I put them in my oven for 6 minutes, then turn the tray around and cook them for another 5 minutes. When you take them out at the end, leave them to cool for a few minutes before you lift them carefully onto a wire rack. Newly born biscuits are very soft and fragile so be gentle.
You can ice them if you like (icing sugar and lemon juice makes a nice icing) or dip them in chocolate maybe. Don't forget to send us photos. If you've questions, tweet us on this thread and we'll try to reply ASAP!
If you like you can dust the biscuits with fine caster sugar before they go in the oven. This is most easily done with a sugar shaker, but you can just use a teaspoon if you like.
