Camomile & Lilac Shortbread

A floral, seasonal take on a classic, buttery shortbread!

(Makes Approx 20)

Ingredients

  • 200g Butter
  • 100g Golden Caster Sugar
  • 2 x Camomile Tea Bags (empty out the contents)
  • Zest of 1/2 lemon
  • 1tsp Vanilla
  • 300g Plain Flour
  • 2Tbsp Icing Sugar
  • 3/4 Cup Lilac Flowers (all green stems removed)

Method

  1. In a large bowl, add butter, golden caster sugar, camomile tea bag contents, lemon zest and vanilla and whisk until light and creamy.
  2. Coat the lilac flowers in the icing sugar, in a separate bowl, gently.
  3. Add the flour and the sugar covered, lilac flowers into the butter mixture, and gently bring together with your hands until everything seems evenly distributed. It’s really important NOT to overwork this. You don’t want to overwork the flour and make the shortbread too crunchy, and you don’t want to completely mush up the lilac flowers either.
  4. Take a piece of beeswax wrap/foil/baking paper and place the ball of dough you’ve brought together onto it.
  5. Gently push the dough into a long, cylindrical (sausage) shape, around 10cm diameter, and then wrap the cover around it, and roll backwards and forwards to get a neater cylindrical shape.
  6. Tuck each end of the wrap/foil in and place dough in the refrigerator for an hour minimum.
  7. Once your dough has chilled for long enough, pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 4/180°c/356°f.
  8. Line a couple of baking trays with baking paper.
  9. Remove your chilled dough from the fridge. Keeping the dough in the cylindrical shape, use a sharp knife/dough scraper/cotton to slice 1/2cm slices, and pop them onto your baking tray. (I found my dough kept squishing into semi circle shapes while slicing, but I went with it and loved it!)
  10. Try to interfere as little as possible with your dough. It helps keep the shortbread crumbly and soft, rather than a crunchy biscuit. If your slices start to fall apart slightly, gently push them together. No need to firmly squash anything!
  11. Bake for 10-15 minutes. They’re ready when they have a very slight golden colour. Don’t be tempted to over bake!
  12. Allow to cool for 10 mins before you move them, they’ll firm up as they cool.

Enjoy!

L xxx

lheaton88