Rosemary and Walnut Shortbread and Orange and Cardamom Shortbread

As promised here is another recipe I did today...

Rosemary and Walnut Shortbread

325g plain flour
200g salted butter
125g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp rosemary , finely chopped
100g walnuts , chopped

Put the flour and butter in a food processor and whizz until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, egg yolks and rosemary and whizz to a dough. Tip onto a lightly floured work surface and knead in the walnuts. Shape into a log about 5cm across. Wrap in cling film and chill for an hour.
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160/gas 4. Slice the dough into biscuits and arrange on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes then cool.

To do the Orange and Cardamom, replace the rosemary and walnuts with the zest of one orange and 5 cardamom pod seeds crushed in a pestle and mortar.

Lemon Melting Moments

I had a marathon baking session today so I have a few recipes for you to all enjoy. We had friends over so I decided to do some nice biscuits to enjoy in the afternoon, I started off with some lemon melting moments...seemed very appropriate with the lovely sun shine and the daffodils in bloom. They are very simple to make and are so delicate in texture, they are one of my favourite biscuits but its also very easy to eat quite a few of them :))

Lemon Melting Moments

125g butter, softened
3/4 cup (115g) plain flour
1/4 cup (45g) icing sugar mixture
1/3 cup (50g) custard powder or cornflour flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of half a lemon (if you want them more lemony then add more zest)

Filling
150g mascarpone
1 -2 tbsp icing sugar
Zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. beat butter until pale and creamy. Add the flour, icing sugar, custard/cornflour powder, vanilla extract and lemon zest and use a wooden spoon to stir until combined. (You may need to use your hands to being the dough together)
Use your hands to roll teaspoonsful of the dough mixture into balls. Place the balls 3cm apart on the lined trays. Use a fork dusted in icing sugar to gently flatten. Bake in preheated oven, for 15 minutes or until just cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside for 30 minutes to cool.
Mix your mascarpone with 1tbsp of icing sugar and the zest of one lemon.
Use a piping bag to pipe onto the flat side of one of the melting moments and then gently press the other biscuit to sandwich the mascarpone into the middle...continue with the rest

A sweet valentine swirl

As its almost valentines day, I must of course add a little something sweet :) my son had his friends coming over for a play date and tea so we decided to make some mini valentine cookies for them and of course they needed to be fun and different so we went for some sweet valentine swirls pops....must say they were a huge hit :) Very simple to make but so effective!
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons brandy, or milk (I prefer milk, surprisingly enough)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Mix together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar; mix until light and fluffy. With mixer running, add egg, brandy or milk, and vanilla; mix until well combined. With the mixer on low, slowly add reserved flour mixture. Mix until just combined.
Here is where we shake it up to make our swirl cookies.
Transfer half of dough to a work surface. in a bowl add 1/8 teaspoon of food coloring. Mix until just evenly distributed, try not to overmix.
Place your white dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a rectangle as best you can. Repeat with the colored dough. Place on a baking sheet and put it in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the fridge and peel the paper off of one side of the colored dough. Lightly flour your work surface and flip the dough over onto it, then peel off the paper from the other side.
Lightly brush the top of the colored dough with water.
Peel the paper off of one side of your white dough. Place it dough side down on top of the colored dough, trying to align the two rectangles of dough as well as possible. Then peel the paper from the other side.
Use a sharp knife to trim the edges of your rectangle so they are straight and even. Save the scraps and use to make other cookies such as marbled cookie shapes (rolling two colours together and cutting them out)
Start to gently roll the dough and Continue until it is all rolled up.
You might see some gaps if you look at the side of the dough. You don’t want those so gently roll the dough with two hands until the gaps disappear.
In a pan, empty your sprinkles or whatever cookie decoration you like. We used hundred and thousands.
Brush the dough with water, then gently roll in the toppings, pushing the toppings gently into the dough so they stick.
Wrap with cling film and Place in the fridge for one hour to firm up.
Preheat oven to 180/170 fan/350 degrees. Remove dough from the fridge and trim the ends of the dough flat.
Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Evenly slice the roll to about 1/4″ thickness.
Place on the baking tray, at this point you can insert some lollipop sticks to create lollipop cookies and Bake until lightly golden, about ten minutes; do not allow to brown.
Enjoy :)))