Paterson's Shortbread Fingers: The Everyday Shortbread

Shortbread stretches from the thick, melting all-butter slab saved in a tin for Christmas to the firm, sandy finger bought by the bag, and Paterson's plain fingers belong at the everyday end. Expect that rather than the gift tin and the finger does its job well.

Six ingredients and a Rutherglen name

The published list is short: fortified wheat flour, rapeseed oil, sugar, butter, salt and flavouring. Rapeseed oil comes ahead of butter, which tells you this is not an all-butter recipe and goes a long way to explaining the texture. The finger is firmer and drier than a premium shortbread, and it keeps its shape in a lunchbox where a richer biscuit would crumble inside the wrapper.

Paterson's traces its baking to 1895, when John and Isabella Paterson opened a bakery in the Royal Burgh of Rutherglen and sold their baking from a horse-drawn van. The business later became Paterson Arran, was bought by Burton's Biscuit Company in 2019 and now sits within Fox's Burton's Companies. The finger is still the shape the whole range is built around.

Plain fingers against the Clotted Cream line

We stock two Paterson's lines, both in 300g packs. The Clotted Cream fingers add clotted cream to the dough and eat richer; these plain ones are drier, faintly toasty and easier to eat one after another. Both contain wheat (gluten) and milk, and the brand describes both as suitable for vegetarians, with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

Choose by the cup. A strong English Breakfast or an Assam with milk wants the plain finger, because the tea is doing the heavy lifting and the biscuit only needs to be dry and buttery beside it. If your usual afternoon cup is lighter and more aromatic, the plain finger still works, though that is where the Clotted Cream line comes into its own.

Dunking, storing and baking with it

Keep the dunk short, two seconds at the most. A dense, fat-rich finger does not soak evenly, so it jumps from dry to falling apart with almost no useful stage between. Store the bag in a cool cupboard rather than the fridge, where cold sets the fat hard and robs the finger of its short bite, and close it tightly each time, because a softened finger never crisps again.

A big bag of plain shortbread is also a baking ingredient. Crushed fingers make a sound cheesecake base or a crumble topping, and they layer well in a trifle, all jobs where a flavoured or coated biscuit would get in the way. The broken pieces at the bottom of the bag are the ones to reach for first.

The packs we stock

• Paterson's Shortbread Fingers, 300g (barcode 072417196379)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Paterson's Shortbread Fingers, 300g (barcode 072417196379) says it contains wheat (gluten) and milk. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.

Ingredients, as published: Wheat flour (Wheat flour, Calcium carbonate, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin), Rapeseed oil, Sugar, Butter (Milk), Salt, Flavouring.

Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.

What to drink with it

• Dilmah Earl Grey, 20 Tea Bags 30g: An Earl Grey on a Ceylon base, drunk black, whose citrus lift keeps a plain buttery finger tasting clean.
• Teapigs Darjeeling, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g: A lighter, fragrant cup that a plain biscuit will not drown out, for the mid-afternoon finger.
• Twinings the Earl Grey Decaffeinated Plant Based, 40 Tea Bags 100g: The same bergamot pairing in a decaffeinated cup, so the last finger of the evening still has its partner.
• Tetley Redbush Vanilla, 40 Tea Bags 100g: Vanilla and butter are old friends, and a redbush base gives a round, gentle cup beside a plain biscuit.

Elsewhere in the Paterson's range

• Paterson's Clotted Cream Shortbread Fingers, 300g

The full range is on the Paterson's brand page.

FAQ

Is Paterson's shortbread made with all butter? No. The published ingredients list rapeseed oil ahead of butter, which is why the finger is firmer and sandier than an all-butter shortbread.

How long can you dunk a shortbread finger? Two seconds, then take it out. A dense finger goes from dry to falling apart very quickly.

Should shortbread be kept in the fridge? No. Cold hardens the fat and the biscuit loses its short texture; a cool, dry cupboard with the bag closed is better.

How do these differ from the Clotted Cream fingers? Those add clotted cream to the dough and eat richer. The plain fingers are drier and more of an every-cup biscuit.

Who makes Paterson's shortbread? Paterson's began as a Rutherglen family bakery in 1895 and is now part of Fox's Burton's Companies.

Curator's note: This is the finger to keep in the cupboard for a mid-morning cup on a busy Tuesday, and the broken ones go straight into a crumble topping at the weekend. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Paterson's Shortbread Fingers: The Everyday Shortbread

More from the tea wiki

• Tea and Biscuits
• Biscuit Dunking Physics: The Real Science
• Tea Pairing Principles: Reason, Don't Memorise
• Tea With Cake: The Pairing That Never Fails (If You Get It Right)
• Tea and Food Pairing: The Five Principles
• Scottish Biscuits and Tea: What Pairs With What

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