It’s basic alright- didn't realise how basic it was until I looked up the recipe. In some British cookbook published in the early 20th century, classic shortbread contains just three ingredients, flour ("dried and sieved"), butter ("squeezed free of all water") and sugar ("fine caster").

I got the recipe from the NYTimes Food of course and this is the recipe by Melissa Clark:

240 grams all-purpose flour (2 cups)
36 grams rice flour (1/4 cup)
62 grams sugar (1/4 cup), more as needed
2 grams fine sea salt (1/2 teaspoon)
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 cup), melted and cooled

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.

• In a bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar and salt. Stir in the butter. Press dough evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake until golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes. Sprinkle evenly with sugar while warm and slice; cool completely.

As most basic recipes, there are a million variations but I stuck to this one and It turned out to be what I expected it to be.

Baking notes:
1. Is there a way to ‘properly’ melt butter? I melted mine in the microwave but I felt that it ‘cooked’ it- does that affect the final product? It wasn’t as buttery as Melissa promised it was going to be.
2. Don’t over-bake it- stick to the allotted 30-40 minutes. I was looking for that golden surface, but look at the edges. If they’ve browned, alas, it has been over-cooked.
3. The right-sized pan makes the difference in how it cooks (obviously the cooking area). Could you believe I’ve only just now started to actually measure my pans??? I plan to go to the stores to buy pans and make sure I check the sizes first.