Ayden: I'm sorry, he's college application essay nyu The history of shortbread is, funnily enough, rather long. Today, it is a biscuit-like affair, usually consisting of a holy trinity of flour, sugar and butter, but the original shortbread may have been a thrifty treat created from enahncing left-over bread dough, or cooked bread that was popped back in the oven to crisp up. Probably related to the similar "shortcakes”, which were popular in the 16th century - Shakespeare features an "Alice Shortcake” in one of his plays - some of the earliest recipes call for oats and “barm”, the yeasty foam scraped off fermenting liquor (try marketing that, Scottish tourist board). The name possibly reflects the large quantity of butter or “shortening” used, which stops long gluten strands from forming and creates shortbread's distinctive brittle, sandy texture – though interestingly, the word ”short” has actually been used to mean in a more general sense to mean something crumbly since medieval times.