Shortbread landscape

0612 shortbread landscape
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

It looks home made, doesn't it? It is. I like that rustic home-made look. I have shortbread moulds, but don't use them very often - especially when time is pressing, as it was this morning.

This is lime shortbread, one of my Christmas specialities, and here is the recipe - a gift to you!

(all measurements are in metric, but any online converter will put them into imperial for you)

LIME SHORTBREAD

Ingredients

250g butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lime and one tablespoon of lime juice
1 egg, beaten
500g plain flour, sifted (I usually take out 1/4 cup of this and replace it with 1/4 cup ground rice for that gritty shortbread texture which I prefer)
pinch salt

Method

Cream butter and sugar, add zest and juice, beat, add egg, beat, add flour, beat. Kneading the mixture (turn it out onto a lightly floured board) will improve the texture (or let the mixer bing it around a bit longer). Line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper, or grease it lightly with butter. Roll out the mixture and use Christmas cutters - stars, hearts, sheep, angels - to cut out the biscuits. Bake in a 160 degrees (Celsius) oven for about 20 minutes. Cool on the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a cake rack to cool completely. You may decorate these with royal icing and silver cachou balls.

(Cheat's note: my landscape of shortbread is cooked in a lamington tin and cut into squares - the time-poor solution. You have to cook it for longer, of course...maybe 30-45 min? As you can see, I prick the top with a fork and slice it into small squares while it's still warm in the tin) (a lamington tin measures 11 x 8 x 1.5 inches).

I like the lime because it 'cuts' the thick richness of the shortbread. I'm not sure if purist shortbread recipes use an egg, but I find an egg enriches the flavour of biscuits (cookies if you're in the US) (or do we all meet on common linguistic ground with 'shortbread'?).