Whenever the biscuit stash in our store cupboard reaches critical levels there are normally two obvious options to remedy the situation. Firstly, I can whip out a pre-made refrigerator cookie dough roll from the freezer. Alternatively, if the frozen stock is depleted, I can whip up a quick batch of shortbread.

Justin bought me this vintage wooden biscuit mould a few weeks ago, so it was a great opportunity to use it for the first time to make some shortbread rounds.

We think the mould might be Indian so we’ve added a few spices in homage – cardamom, ginger and vanilla.

The swirl pattern it makes is just beautiful – I needed to sprinkle some polenta into the mould so the dough didn’t stick and it also helped with the definition.

We liked all three flavours. And it has to be said that, if we hadn’t been trying to think of suitable Indian spices for biscuits, we probably would never have tried cardamom shortbread – yet we both thought that it was very successful. I’ll definitely be making these again soon!

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Shortbread rounds, three ways

2017-03-10 18:10:33

Ingredients

1. 175g/6oz/¾ cup plain flour
2. 50g/2oz/½ cup cornflour
3. 50g/2oz/¼ caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
4. 115g/4oz/½ cup butter, chopped
5. 1 cardamom seed, removed from the pod and ground
6. ¼ tsp vanilla essence
7. ¼ tsp ground ginger

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas mark 3. Lightly flour the mould with semolina (or plain flour if you don't have it) and line a baking sheet with non-stick parchment paper
2. Sift the flour, cornflour and sugar into a mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour & sugar mixture until it binds together and you can knead it into a soft dough
3. Divide the dough into thirds (130g/4½oz each) and gently knead the ground cardamom into one, vanilla into the next and ground ginger into the last
4. One by one, place each ⅓ of dough into the mould and press to fit neatly and evenly. Invert the mould on to the baking sheet using your fingers if necessary to gently to release the dough shape
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until pale golden in colour
6. Sprinkle the top of the shortbread with a little caster sugar and cool on a baking sheet
7. Cut the rounds into 'petticoat tails' whilst still warm

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