Shortbread

I love Shortbread. Perfect with a cup of tea and a fantastic pick me up. Although such a beautiful classic, I sometimes feel like injecting just a little bit of life into those melt-in-your-mouth little beauties.

I often bake a batch of Shortbread to take to a friends or my mums house, 'never turn up empty handed' as my grandmother use to say. I have come up with some fantastic flavour combinations which work so well with the buttery and crumbly classic biscuit and bring them to life.

To be honest, my recipe for shortbread is a very simple one and copes well with being added too, which made it so easy to extend the recipe and add flavours. Once I have brought all the ingredients together in each recipe, the dough is to be wrapped up in cling film and set aside in the fridge for 20 minutes, this helps film the dough and makes it easier to roll out, esspeccially when you have multiple fillings in your Shortbread. What you can do, is roll your dough into a sausage shape and then wrap and store, this way you can simply slice the round biscuits straight off the dough.

I have 3 particular Shortbread Recipes which I think work so well, they don't over power, they simply and delicately bring life to this classic Highland Recipe.

Each recipe makes 18 Shortbread biscuits

Lemon and Chia Seed Shortbread

This recipe creates a very soft and moist Shortbread biscuit, the Chia seeds give real bite!

150g Plain Flour

50g Caster Sugar

100g Softened Butter

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Lemon

3 tbsp. Chia Seed

50g Icing Sugar (optional)

• Preheat oven to 180 c and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
• Grate the lemon for skin, once you've don't this, cut the lemon in half, you'll use one of the halves of the lemon for the juice.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour (no need to sift, although its up to you), sugar and the butter (break into chunks) and rub together with your fingers, when the dough starts to form add the vanilla, lemon skin and the chia seeds.
• Take one of the halves of lemon and give it a good squeeze into the mixture. Once you've done this, mix he added elements into the dough until evenly spread.
• Pop the dough into some cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• when the dough is ready, roll out to your desired thickness and using a knife or a cutter, cut out your shortbread.
• Transfer to a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
• I often drizzle my shortbread with some icing sugar but allow to cool for 5 minutes first.

Mocha Shortbread

This is a truly famous flavour combination which works tremendously and is almost even better, in my opinion, when woven into shortbread. I was desperate to try this combination once I'd had the idea and I couldn't be more pleased I gave it a go, as it is my ultimate favourite!

150g Plain Flour

50g Caster Sugar

100g Softened Butter

1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 tsp. Granulated coffee

2 tbsp. boiling water

2 tbsp. Cocoa Powder/Hot Chocolate

• Preheat oven to 180 c and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
• In a small jug dissolve the coffee granules with the kettle boiled water and set to one side.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour (no need to sift, although its up to you), sugar and the butter (break into chunks) and rub together with your fingers, when the dough starts to form add the cocoa powder or hot chocolate powder.
• Gradually add the dissolved coffee, mixing the dough as you add the liquid.
• You might find that the coffee has a marbled appearance within the dough, I tend to keep this, once they are baked it gives a real stunning appearance to this biscuits.
• Pop the dough into some cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• when the dough is ready, roll out to your desired thickness and using a knife or a cutter, cut out your shortbread.
• Transfer to a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Honey and Cashew Nut Shortbread

This is such a seasonal recipe, and one that fits in with autumn and winter so very well. The flavours are very sweet and warming, especially with the sweet honey running through them. These are my partners favourite, as well as being a big Shortbread fan, he loves honey roasted cashews. I've tried this recipe with both plain and honey roasted cashews and both work very well. The honey roasted cashews give a bit more bite to the Shortbread.

150g Plain Flour

50g Caster Sugar

100g Softened Butter

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tbsp. Honey

3 tbsp. Crushed Cashew Nuts

• Preheat oven to 180 c and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
• In a food processor or using a sandwich bag and a rolling pin, whizz the nuts into small pieces. 30 seconds maximum in the food processor.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour (no need to sift, although its up to you), sugar and the butter (break into chunks) and rub together with your fingers, when the dough starts to form add the honey and the nuts.

• Pop the dough into some cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• when the dough is ready, roll out to your desired thickness and using a knife or a cutter, cut out your shortbread.
• Transfer to a baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
• I often drizzle my shortbread with some more honey, to give a shiny finish!
  
  
  

  
  

Enjoy these recipes guys, let me know how you get on

BBx