1/2 egg, beaten
1 c. confectioners' sugar divided
1 c. butter
3 c. sifted flour
3 tbsp. rice flour or cornmeal finely sifted
1/3 tsp. salt

Sift half of sugar with flour, rice flour and salt into large bowl. Mix thoroughly adding butter cut into small pieces. Work butter into flour mixture until flaky and no lumps remain; lightly rub until the butter is completely mixed with the flour mixture.

Make a hole in mixture and sift the rest of confectioners' sugar, pour in 1/2 beaten egg in confectioners' sugar and stir. Keep stirring as long as the flour is being picked up as you stir. Knead very thoroughly (cannot knead too much).

Put dough on waxed paper forming an 8 inch circle 3/4 inch thick. Pat to fit now, it's important to stab through dough with a knife in center of patty and 4 times about 1 1/2 inches from outside edge of dough.

Place pan over dough and pick up by putting edge of waxed paper over dough and quickly turnover. Press dough evenly in pan, use knife handle for a fancy border, use tines of fork to stab through the rest of the dough, completely covering it. Bake in a very slow oven (as low as possible). Place high in oven (for even browning, should be a creamy color when baked.) Shortbread is done when it becomes crisp all through about 3 hours.

It's very difficult to give exact time, a slight variation in heat will bake the shortbread in 2 hours instead of 3 or 4. The slower you bake the better the shortbread. You can turn it out of the pan to see that the bottom is not getting baked too well.