Scottish shortbread recipe challenge

I recently acquired a copy of Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery - a magnificent tome worthy of any cocktail table!  

My mouth was watering as I flipped through it - mentally making notes of recipes I can't wait to try. 

Then I came upon his recipe for shortbread.  He stops short of calling it Scottish, but does refer to it as traditional.  While I would never have the temerity to match my skills to his, I do take great exception to the inclusion of vanilla - in any form - in shortbread.  

I have tasted this  wonderful treat many times in many homes in Scotland and none of them contained vanilla.  To my taste, this ruins the sublime flavor of butter, sugar and flour.  My own recipe, which you can find in this blog, contains butter, sugar, plain flour and rice flour.  The only other variations I have encountered replace the rice flour with cornstarch or very fine semolina.

Shortbread aside, this is a book any home baker will love - some of the recipes are more for drooling over than actually baking and some of the equipment is a bit esoteric to say the least. Nevertheless, it is a fabulous book well worth owning.

Here are two of my shortbread videos;