Cardamom Shortbread

I’m on a bit of a shortbread fest at the moment – keep an eye out for more over the next few weeks.

These ones are from Rick Stein’s “India” and came about as an accompaniment to the mango fool I made for dessert the other night – it’s a bit like a lassi but with more body and absolutely perfect as a finish to curry. It’s also from the “India” cookbook.

with the mango fool

The first time I made these I stuffed it up. The recipe says the icing sugar should be beaten into the creamed butter and then for the flour etc to be mixed in after that. I accidentally sifted the flour into the icing sugar so the whole lot went in together and, to be honest, the end result was pretty good so I do it that way all the time now.

Also, the recipe calls for ghee – which I usually have in the fridge. I suppose you could use butter, but these are definitely “shorter” and more delicate with ghee.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe…

What you need

• 100g ghee, softened
• 100g icing sugar – well sifted to get rid of all those little lumps
• 125g plain flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch salt
• A couple of shakes of ground cardamom. You can use fresh cardamom if you like – just use the seeds from 2-3 pods and grind them down in a mortar and pestle

What you do with it

Preheat the oven to 160C and line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment

Pop the ghee into a large mixing bowl and whisk it until its light and creamy – I use a stand mixer for this, but one of those hand-held ones would do the job just as well.

At this point you should beat in the icing sugar and then sift in the flour, baking powder and salt…or just throw it all in and mix until it comes together into a dough. Your call…

Roll it out on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 1cm and cut out the biscuits with a round scone cutter.

I live in South-East Queensland so have found that the dough gets way too soft to work with very quickly. Rather than rolling it out, I’ve found it easier to form the dough into a sausage shape and wrap in cling film in the fridge until it firms up and then I cut discs from the sausage.

Place on your baking sheets, allowing a little space around each, and bake for about 15 minutes. They should be lightly golden, firm to the touch, but not brown.

Cool on a rack and then transfer them to an airtight container until you’re ready to serve them.