On the Third day of Christmas, my True Love baked for me…
Saffron Almond Shortbread and a big cup of lovely hot tea.
At least for me, shortbread is a integral part of Christmas. If I go round to an Auntie’s house during the holidays and there isn’t at least one or more of, Christmas Cake, Shortbread, or Fruit Mince Tarts, I’m pretty disappointed … What am I saying, this has never happened.
I’m pretty sure though, that Saffron Almond Shortbread is my favourite shortbread of all time, and amongst my family anyway, it only happens at my house. I got the idea about 8 years ago with a Christmas gift from my brother and his family, which included a package of very swish artisan shortbread in this very flavour. It was love. I don’t know if you can still buy this stuff, and I don’t remember the brand either, but it doesn’t matter anymore because I worked out how to make it!
This recipe calls for rice flour, which is available in supermarkets. It adds that distinctive crunchy texture to the shortbread.
Saffron Almond Shortbread
makes about 55 biscuits
ingredients
350g flour
50g rice flour
50g cornflour
100g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
230g unsalted butter
4 pinches saffron threads
40g slivered almonds
mixing
Place the flours, sugar, salt and butter into a food processor along with half of the saffron.
Process until the mixture starts to clump together. Tip the mixture into a large bowl and add the almonds and remaining saffron.
Knead the mixture with your hands until it forms a slightly dry, crumbly dough. Gather the dough into a ball and pat out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangular shape.
Roll the dough out to about 1 cm thick and cut squares or shapes of your choice (I used a 4cm star cutter). If you are using a cookie cutter, bunch the offcuts back together and roll out again until you have used all the dough, but take care to use the minimum flour necessary when rolling the dough out because it will get a little drier each time you reform the offcuts back into a lump.
Place the shortbreads onto trays lined with baking paper and prick each a couple of times with a fork. Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes or until the shortbreads are just starting to colour up. Cool on a wire rack.
Enjoy!xxx
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