Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Cotswold Lavender Shortbread
GIANT EXHALE!! My God it has been a stressful few weeks! Exam time is never fun but this time seemed to take the biscuit (beg pardon for the pun!) in terms of stress levels. I'm looking forward to getting back to baking, blogging and reading FOR THE FUN OF IT!
Lavender is something that I've wanted to try since Jo used it on last year's Great British Bake Off. I considered buying a fresh lavender plant but I'm a spoilt little brat and I want lavender shortbread when I demand it, whether in season or not so I thought I'd go online and buy some dried culinary lavender. And it was a rewarding internet retail experience. I bought from http://www.cotswoldlavender.co.uk/ and in two short working days a little box arrived filled with PURPLE shredded paper and with a PURPLE recipe sheet. Do you see what they did using purple there? It was a slow study day, I found it fairly amusing. I'm a marketing mogul's dream.
This recipe is from the sheet they sent, I'm guessing they are pretty expert using lavender and as a complete novice I leave it in their hands. I didn't want the shortbread to end up tasting like a bar of soap.
From Cotswold Lavender
175g unsalted butter softened
75g caster sugar
200g plain flour
40g ground rice
1 level tsp dried culinary lavender
1. Preheat the oven to 160oC.
2. Place the flour, ground rice, lavender and sugar in a bowl and mix until even.
3. Chop up the butter into small cubes and rub in thoroughly with your fingertips or with a food processor.
3. Mix until it comes together in a ball then press into a greased tin, prick with a fork and bake for around 35 minutes.
4. Cut into fingers when still hot and leave to cool in the tin.
5. Sprinkle with caster sugar when cooled.