Lemon and Poppy Seed Valentine's Shortbread

I love shortbread. I don't really care for Valentine's day.

This year, I'm defaulting to my normal level of effort - making something that I already know and love, but cutting it into the shape of a heart. And as shortbread is the the first thing I go for when I fancy making a sweet treat, heart shaped shortbread is my perfect treat for Feb 14th!

I love that it's super easy and versatile - my favourites are topping plain shortbread with cinnamon sugar, and chocolate chip shortbread. Also, having fun with biscuit cutters always pleases me.

I 💓 penguins - therefore they are Valentine themed (to me)!

I decided to combine some more of my favourite flavours  with my favourite biscuit - lemon and poppy seed! And the natural sugary buttery-ness of the shortbread goes perfectly with the zesty lemon.

It's basically the same recipe as my tried and tested shortbread with a few flavour swaps. Enjoy!

Makes about 20 medium sized biscuits

Ingredients for the biscuits

• 185g butter
• 85g caster sugar
• 200g plain flour
• 50g cornflour
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds
• Pinch salt
• Zest of one lemon

To finish

• A few tbsp granulated sugar

Choc Chip Shortbread

Shortbread is one of my favourite things to make. Everyone loves shortbread, and it is VERSATILE. It’s not all just those little plain fingers of sugary biscuit you get at Christmas.

You can keep it plain, but dust with cinnamon and vanilla sugar, you can add lemon zest, or orange zest, dip them in chocolate, the options are endless. And that's before you get to the different shapes you could cut them out in!

Little Chick Shortbread - perfect for Easter!

Hearts for Valentine's day..

I love mine with chocolate chips, and it’s my godson’s favourite so I like to make it often! I added a little twist to it again this time, with half of the mix as choc chip and half choc chip with added coconut. Bounty Bar shortbread anyone?!

Shortbread - My Mum's Recipe

Lent is upon us once again. But, everyone knows that you can break your Lent on a Sunday.

And when you break your Lent, you need to do it in style. Forget a few squares of chocolate, you need something amazing.

Enter shortbread.

Shortbread is amazing. Shortbread also eluded me for many years. My mum makes amazing shortbread, and I basically rooted through her recipes until I found it this Christmas. Sharing is fun.

I think they key is the cornflour, it gives it a beautiful “snap” and makes the biscuit deliciously crumbly and crunchy.  The butter is incredible. It’s all working. AND it got the seal of approval from my little godson on Christmas day (he had one in his mouth and one in each hand and was anxiously checking the box to see how many were left).

Apart from being gorgeous and buttery and delicious AND easy to make, its also a fairly versatile recipe. I’ve made it with just plain sugar topping, with lemon zest in the biscuits, and (a personal favourite) with chocolate chips in the dough!

German Biscuits

German biscuits are a staple in Northern Irish bakeries, along with other such classics as snowballs and coconut fingers and fifteens.

They’re a very important part of my childhood, and whenever we would head to a bakery, my sticky little fingers would reach for this sweet round shortbread biscuit,with jam oozing out the sides and barely-set white icing dolloped in the centre.

As I've said, the classic combination is jam and white icing, so the caramel in half of these isn’t strictly “canon” but I had a little bit of caramel left over from another baking project so I thought I’d mix things up. It was delicious, as adding caramel to things normally is. If I had to choose, I think I have to favour tradition and give my thumbs up to the classic jam-filled ones, mainly because I'm a sucker for nostalgia.

You will note that the icing on top is a little.. slapdash. But that’s the way it is meant to be. A beautifully and finely piped topping of icing is great.. but it’s not quite right for these. So dollop away!

Shortbread- Mary Berry Style

Oh, it's autumn you say? TIME TO SPEND THE LONG DARK NIGHTS BAKING!

Oh my goodness, shortbread is my nemesis. There are just some things I can’t get my head around cooking, stuff that just NEVER comes out how I want it to:

-The first is the most shameful: mashed potatoes. Mine are all at once thin AND lumpy.  It’s not hard. And I am Irish. But still, no dice.

-The second is more of a group of things I fail at: toffee/caramel/fudge. Can’t do it. I follow the instructions to. the. letter and still I just can’t make it do what it needs to. There have been some super disasters in this, to the point where I just buy the pre-made banoffee toffee stuff when I need to. DON’T LOOK AT ME!

-And finally: shortbread. My paternal grandmother makes the most perfect, melt in your mouth, flavourful, crisp shortbread that the world has ever seen. My mother makes shortbread that is close to perfection. And I just can’t measure up to it..

Until Mary effing Berry came into my life. This shortbread is rather different from the ones I’ve known before, it’s thicker and softer, but still just delightful. If you’re keeping track of my ideal afternoon tea tray, add these bad boys to it.