Nigella Lawson's vanilla shortbread recipe has emerged as the clear winner in a head-to-head comparison with Paul Hollywood's buttery shortbread, impressing with superior flavour, texture and simplicity.
Angela Patrone, Senior Lifestyle Reporter, tested both recipes this week and was surprised by the outcome. The comparison follows an earlier test in which Nigella's classic Victoria sponge recipe also triumphed over Paul's.
Paul Hollywood's buttery shortbread
The first recipe tested was Paul Hollywood's buttery shortbread, which calls for basic ingredients including cornflour, an addition not typically used in shortbread. The ingredients list includes 225g of unsalted butter, 110g of caster sugar, 225g of plain flour, 110g of cornflour and a pinch of salt.
The method required creaming the butter and sugar together first, rather than combining all ingredients at once. The mixture was then sifted with the flours and salt, kneaded into a soft dough, and rolled between two sheets of baking parchment to a thickness of 1cm.
Paul suggests cutting the dough into triangles, which proved the most time-consuming step. After cutting, the shortbread was chilled for 30 minutes and baked at 150C Fan/170C/Gas Mark 3 for 25 minutes until the edges turned golden brown.
The finished shortbread had a pleasing crispness but was slightly lacking in the crumbly texture that shortbread lovers expect.
Nigella Lawson's vanilla shortbread
Nigella's recipe calls for a more extensive list of ingredients, including a vanilla pod and icing sugar alongside cornflour. The ingredients are 100g of icing sugar, 200g of plain flour, 100g of cornflour, 200g of very soft unsalted butter, seeds from one vanilla pod and caster sugar for dusting.
The method involves combining all ingredients in a food processor until a dough forms. The vanilla seeds are extracted by cutting the pod in half across, then splitting each half lengthwise and scraping out the seeds. The deseeded pod pieces can be stored in a container of caster sugar for future use.
The dough was pressed into a Swiss roll tin, scored into fingers, and baked at 140C Fan for around 23 minutes until pale but no longer doughy. After cooling, the shortbread was dusted with caster sugar.
The winner
The standout feature of Nigella's shortbread was its texture — remarkably crumbly and dissolving effortlessly on the palate. It was also sweeter than Paul's, with a rich vanilla flavour.
On balance, Nigella's recipe was the clear winner, delivering superior flavour and texture while requiring far less effort and fewer steps than Paul's method.
