Cardamom Shortbreads

Name: Cardamom Shortbreads
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 8 cardamom pods; 200 g butter; 25 g ground rice; 240 g plain flour; 70 g icing sugar; 1 beaten egg; demerara sugar, for rolling; vanilla sugar for dusting

Joanne @JoanneinBath

Bath, UK

I love the flavour of cardamom and in this recipe Yotam Ottolenghi adds it to crisp, sweet shortbread. Ottolenghi's original recipe rolls the shortbread in finely chopped pistachio nuts, which looks beautiful, but I never have any raw pistachios when I feel the need to bake these so I've always used demerara sugar instead; cheaper, crunchier, and easier.

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Ingredients

8cardamom pods
200 gbutter
25 gground rice
240 gplain flour
70 gicing sugar
1beaten egg
demerara sugar, for rolling
vanilla sugar for dusting

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Steps

1

Lightly crush the cardamom pods to release the seeds, discard the shells and put the seeds into a mortar. Crush finely with the pestle.
2

Place the butter, ground rice, flour and icing sugar in a food processor and mix until you have a dough.
3

Turn the dough out onto the work surface and push with your hands into a roll, about 3-4 cm in diameter. Wrap in plastic film and place in the fridge for an hour. Chilling is an important stage, don't rush it, otherwise the shortbreads will spread too much when they're cooking.
4

Take the roll out of the fridge and remove the film. Brush with beaten egg and roll in demerara sugar. Place back in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
5

Preheat the oven to 150°C/Gas 2. Take the roll out of the fridge and cut into thin slices, about 5mm thick, and place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. You could cut the roll in two and store the other half in the fridge for baking another day. I used half the roll and it made 13 biscuits.
6

Sprinkle a little vanilla sugar over the top of the biscuits and bake for around 15 minutes on a low shelf. I think the secret of getting these shortbreads crisp is to make sure you don't cook them too quickly, and that they bake to a pale golden colour.
7

Cool on a wire rack and don't store in a jar or a tin until they are completely cold.

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Cooksnaps

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Joanne @JoanneinBath

on January 22, 2016 17:40

Bath, UK

I enjoy cooking mostly because I like eating, but also because it's a great way to relax at the end of the day. I work in book publishing and especially enjoy creating cookbooks written by cooks who love cooking and sharing food rather than creating show stopping dishes that take days to put together. As Nigel Slater would say; 'we are, after all, simply making ourselves something to eat'. I live with my lovely daughter Isobel who rarely pays any kind of compliment but will occasionally admit something I've cooked was quite nice, and our dog Piper, who will eat anything.