Lavender Lemon & Honey Shortbread
Shortbread is a saviour. Whether you have impromptu guests or you forgot your Mum's birthday, no problem, whip up a batch of these guys and your sorted. Once you have a base recipe you can begin to experiment. I use a base recipe from @bbcgoodfood and often add teaspoon of cinnamon, crushed fennel seeds or, my favourite, orange zest with rose water icing and a sprinkle of crusted pistachios for that wonderfully smug,‘They’re not Ottolenghi, I made them myself’ look.
Ingredients:
195g plain flour
155g butter
70g caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon
3/4 teaspoon dried lavender, ground plus extra for decorating
Icing
1 egg white
180g icing sugar
1 teaspoon of honey
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Mix the sugar, butter, ground lavender and lemon zest in a bowl until well combined and the colour has lightened slightly. I do this part with an electric whisk.
2. Sift a third of the flour into the butter mixture and fold it in with a spoon. Continue the process until all of the flour just combined. Be gentle with it, over mixing will cause the shortbread to be tough.
3. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and bring the mixture together into a ball. Roll it out flat and either cut squares out with a knife or use a cutter of your choice, personally I think simple shapes look best. Add the biscuits to a tray lined with baking paper and cook for 15 minutes.
4. For the icing, whisk all of the ingredients together and add it to a piping bag. When the shortbread is baked, leave it to cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack. Once cooled ice a design of your choice. I’m terrible at icing so the plan to pipe an elaborate pattern turned into a bit of a basic semi-circle, you could also just dip them. To finish add a small pinch of dried lavender in one corner.