It's no secret by now that I adore short bread. It's buttery, not-too-sweet, and (clearly) endlessly variable. But it's also ridiculously easy to make. The ratios are simple, the work is easy, and the results are both repeatable and predictable. As such, I don't have all that much guidance to give you in this section. Still, I will tackle a couple of points about the ingredients for good measure.

Blackcurrant ≠ dried currant.

Currant is a deeply frustrating word.  The tiny little dried fruits used in these cookies (and indeed in any baked good that calls for 'currants') is not in any way related to the tart black, red, or white fresh fruits we commonly call currants.

The currants in these cookies are small dried true grapes (family Vitaceae).  The variety of grape is called the Corinth grape - in North America they're often sold fresh as 'champagne grapes' (which is annoying, as they're not in any way used to make champagne).  Over time and across translations, the word "Corinth" became currant in English.

Blackcurrants are small, tart fruits in the gooseberry family (Grossulariaceae), and are completely unrelated to grapes.  The word 'currant' was borrowed from the familiar dried grapes, because heaven forbid we use a new word.  Sigh.

If you've been operating under the idea that dried currants are blackcurrants, you are wrong - but you are certainly not alone.  There's a lot of confusion over this idea, further amplified by the fact that both are small dark fruits, and both are rather popular in British cuisine.

I do have some good news though - you're not really going to have to worry about any of this when you shop for ingredients.  Dried blackcurrants are basically a non-existent entity at any common commercial scale.  If you're in a store and they sell bags of tiny dried fruits called currants, you can pretty much guarantee that they are the raisin type.  If you're in America, you might find these fruits labelled as Zante currants.  These are the currants you're looking for.

While you shouldn't have any trouble shopping for (Zante) currants, it is nonetheless worth pointing out that these little fruits taste like raisins, not blackcurrants.  Please do not post a comment below complaining that your cookies had raisins in them.

Now I know there are plenty of anti-raisins-in-cookies people out there, but I do encourage you to give (Zante) currants an honest go.  They are delightfully dark and sweet, with an intense jammy flavour.  Their small size makes them much less texturally intrusive than larger raisins too.  Plus, they soak up and compliment the whisky really nicely.  And if anyone gives you side-eye and says "are there raisins in these?" you can just say "they're currants."

Whiskey = the preferred spelling in Ireland and the USA, and for products produced in those countries.
Whisky = the preferred spelling everywhere else.

Can't talk about whisky shortbread without talking about whisky!  I used a relatively inexpensive single-malt Scotch whisky to make these.  When it comes to sipping, I'm a fan of many different whiskies, including smoky and peaty varieties - but when it comes to baking, I'd stick to smoother flavours.

You can definitely substitute another whisky (or whiskey) here too.  Just bear in mind that the flavour is what matters here!  If you have a smooth and rich Irish whiskey, rye whisky, bourbon, etc., that you particularly like, feel free to use it here.

What About the Alcohol?

The entire recipe calls for 8 tablespoons (~120 ml) of whisky.  Even if all of the actual alcohol remained behind after cooking, that would mean that each cookie would have meagre 1/2 a teaspoon (2.5 ml) of whisky in it.  Most whiskies are 40% ethanol (ethyl alcohol) by volume, meaning that there would be less than a quarter teaspoon (~1 ml, or 0.8 grams) of ethanol per cookie.  In reality there will be less than this, as a portion of the ethanol will evaporate during the baking process.  Exactly how much will evaporate is exceptionally difficult to say, but it will be some. But even if we assumed that all of the ethanol stayed behind and was absorbed as quickly as if it were consumed in a liquid form (which is definitely not the case), you would need to eat 17 cookies in rapid succession in order to consume the amount of ethanol found in one standard drink.  That's over 2,600 calories of shortbread, for the record.

Biologically speaking, the quantity of ethanol in these cookies shouldn't be any cause for concern, even for children.  Many foods produce small quantities of ethanol as they ripen or ferment, and our bodies are well-equipped to handle this from a very early age.  Once again ignoring all evaporation during baking, one of these cookies (assuming a batch size of 48) would contain 1 ml (0.8 g) of pure ethanol.  To compare, this is about as much ethanol as you'll find in an American-style hamburger bun (at 1.28 g ethanol/100g, per this study on Ethanol exposure in children).

All that being said, biology isn't always the only thing to take into account.  I wouldn't make these cookies for someone who has struggled with alcohol addiction, for example.  This has nothing to do with metabolism, and everything to do with psychology (and basic decency, in my opinion).  Whisky shortbread tastes like whisky.  That's great if you like whisky, but not so great if you've struggled with alcohol abuse.  When in doubt, remember that I have a whole bunch of other shortbread recipes you can make.