Monday 9 January 2012

Clementine shortbread


The skies may be grey and rain falling by the bucketload where I am, but at least the middle of winter brings bright colourful relief with the citrus fruit season. We now have beautiful lemons and oranges, satsumas, tangerines and the lovely clementines I used to make these shortbread, and hopefully the blood orange season is just round the corner. I adore blood oranges, for the novelty of the colour, but the flavour is superb too, nicer than ordinary oranges in my opinion.

This recipe comes from the wonderful 'Cakes' book in the River Cottage series, written by Pam Corbin (and slightly modified by me). Thanks Pam!


Clementine shortbread - makes lots!
Ingredients
150g unsalted buter, cut into small pieces, softened
75g caster sugar
150g plain flour
75g cornflour
zest 1 clementine

Selection of cutters (I used my new star shaped ones)

Method
- Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas 3.
- Beat the butter until softened. Work in the sugar until well mixed.
- Sift in the flour and cornflour, then add the clementine zest and mix until smooth - keep going, it will all come together although it doesn't feel like it will. You can use your hands to gently bring the dough together - try and knead it as lightly and as little as possible.
- Lightly flour the surface and roll out the dough, I wanted fairly thick biscuits, so didn't roll too thinly.
- Cut out biscuits with cutters of your choice, or just cut into pieces with a knife if you have no cutters!
- Bake for around 20 minutes until very lightly coloured - I think mine needed a little longer to get to a stage of done-ness I was happy with, but be careful not to colour them too much.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack.


The shortbread will apparently keep for up to four weeks in an airtight container - if you can resist it for that long!

They are beautifully crumbly, tender biscuits. The clementine is quite subtle - you get the flavour of the clementine straightaway and then the buttery shortbread takes over - yum! I think I could definitely add more zest next time for a stronger flavour. This would be a very good recipe to have in the 'basics' repertoire. Very successful!


I'm submitting these to the #citruslove event being co-hosted by Baking Addict at The more than occasional baker, check it out here.

17 comments:

MissCakeBaker said...

I don't think I could keep them for 4 weeks. They look lovely!

Bronya @ Daisy Cakes said...

Four weeks?!! I'll be lucky to keep these for 4 minutes They look amazing!

Unknown said...

oooh, clementine shortbread... so subtle but so good... I will try this this weekend x

Alicia Foodycat said...

I love blood oranges too, but last season all the ones I bought had only the tiniest streak of red! So disappointing.

Kate@whatkatebaked said...

What a lovely bake! I must of missed this in the book (*rapidly thumbs through 'Cake'*)- but I'll most definitely be giving these a go, thank you for the tip to add a little more zest

Baking Addict said...

I love clementines - been eating them every day! these look so light and buttery... love your cutters :) thanks so much for joining in to #citruslove

Soni said...

Lovely recipe!So light and delicious looking with lovely clementines in them.Yumm..

Katie said...

They look lovely and short. Like the zesty note. Just what we need to wake the tastebuds up in Jan

Johanna GGG said...

those star cutters are brilliant - and I know what you mean about a little fruit being cheering in winter - esp in a bikkie

Elizabeth @Mango_Queen said...

I can imagine how yummy the aroma & flavors of this shortbread! Thanks for the recipe. Glad to share citrus-love with you.

Maria♥ said...

Happy New Year!

This shortbread look very yummy and moreish!

Maria
x

Georgie said...

I love shortbread and these sound so good!

celia said...

Lovely, lovely, lovely! I've just ordered Pam's book from Amazon, so I'm delighted to hear the recipes work so well! :)

cityhippyfarmgirl said...

I love blood orange season as well, although it's a very short one here.
Delicious looking biscuits C.

Chele said...

I was going to make a similar recipe for Christmas but ran out of time. These look great though so I will have to make sure I make them for this Christmas!

Caroline said...

MissCakeBaker - yes, 4 weeks seems optimistic doesn't it!

Bronya - thanks for stopping by!

Dom - let me know what you think.

Foodycat - so disappointing when that happens. If I've bought blood oranges I'm looking for bright red not blushing pink!

Kate - hope you like them.

Baking Addict - Thanks for commenting, and for letting me know about #citruslove!

Soni - thanks!

Katie - they are beautifully crumbly. The clementine is lovely.

Johanna - I was so pleased when I saw the star cutters that I just couldn't resist buying them! Glad you like them too.

Elizabeth - January is perfect citrus time isn't it - time to wake tastebuds up!

Maria - they are indeed more-ish!

Georgie - make them, they are good!!!

Celia - ooh, can't wait to see what you make from the book, I know you're a big fan of the preserves book so I bet you'll love this book!

Chele - yes, shortbread are perfect for Christmas presents.

Terra said...

I love shortbread cookies, so buttery delicious! The addition of clemetines would be so beautiful! YUM:-) Take care, Terra

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