Recipe: Rosemary Shortbread

We had a successful weekend putting up our  little shed (which you can see sneakily in one of the photos below where Adam got in the shot too!) and to celebrate our hard work I wanted to make something delicious that would utilise the abundance of rosemary that has bloomed wonderfully in the potted herb garden Adam made me for my un-birthday last year.

The idea of having sweet herbed biscuits seems a bit odd – rosemary is usually seen adorning a joint of lamb, stuffed into baked Camembert or sprinkled over roasted veggies. As one of my favourite herbs and having a supreme sweet tooth, I was excited at the prospect of combining a simple shortbread biscuit with the aromatic flavour.

For my birthday I’d also received a great cookie gun which I was yet to use so it gave me the perfect opportunity to give it a go. It turns out that the gun was a lot harder to use than I expected, having chosen the “circular of dots with a hole in the middle” shape. I found if you pressed it flat to the baking parchment for one click and then on the second click lifted it up and twisting slowly, the dough just about detached itself and I ended up with pretty twisted circular biscuits that I was happy with.

Ingredients:

• 115g butter, softened
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 medium egg
• 225g plain flour
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

Method:

1. In a big bowl beat together the butter and sugar until it is smooth and creamy and then beat in the egg.
2. Stir in the flour and rosemary and combine until well blended and it forms a dough.
3. Pop the dough in the fridge for about an hour to cool (if you don’t have a cookie gun, roll the dough into a log shape or two long shapes before you do this)
4. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius (Gas 4) and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
5. If you’ve got a cookie gun, stuff the mixture into the barrel and pipe onto the sheet in whichever design you’ve chosen.
6. If you don’t have a cookie gun, cut the logs into thin circles and bake that way
7. Bake the biscuits in the oven until they’re golden brown (about 10-12 minutes).
8. Whilst still warm sprinkle with sugar, the heat should help the sugar stick but you could also roll the uncooked dough in sanding sugar which won’t melt whilst they’re cooking.
9. Leave until completely cool then enjoy with icecream, cheese or creme brulee. YUM.

If you also love rosemary, why not have a look at Buzzfeed’s list of other delicious things you can do with this master of herbs, I’m super keen to try the salted caramel icecream with pistachios and rosemary found here.