Thursday, June 07, 2007

Heart shortbread kisses



Well it looks like I have had disaster number 3 thanks to disaster number 2. I decided to make some shortbreads from Bill Granger’s Bill’s Food to take over to Megan’s for a sweet after lunch treat. The recipe stated minimal beating so I thought I could get away with doing it by hand while in the absence of a mix master. Not so, I don’t think the butter really mixed in properly & as a result the biscuits spread & melted into each other while cooking & some were so bad that they bubbled up & just crumbled when touched. So I ended up with about 8 biscuits (minus one perfect one I dropped on the floor) instead of the 15 the recipe states you will make. One thing though, disaster or no they still tasted amazing, that melt in the mouth buttery sweetness was fantastic sandwiched together with the sweet jam. Hopefully that’s it for kitchen disasters for while now, fingers crossed.

Heart shortbread kisses

40g (1/3 cup) icing sugar, sifted
250g unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
60g (1/2 cup) cornflour
185g (1 ½ cups) plain flour
a pinch of salt
80g (1/4 cup) raspberry jam
icing sugar for dusting

Beat the sugar & butter together in a bowl until just combined. Add the vanilla extract, sifted flours & salt & mix until a dough forms. Mould into a log 6cm in diameter, wrap in plastic wrap & refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180c. Remove the dough from the fridge & cut into 7mm slices, then cut shapes with a 5cm heart biscuit cutter. Reroll the excess dough & repeat the process until all the dough is used up.

Place the hearts on a greased & lined baking tray & bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Transfer to wire racks & leave to cool completely. Spread half the biscuits with jam, top with remaining biscuits & sprinkle with icing sugar.

1 comment:

Ali-K said...

Oh the baking disasters! It sounds like many people are being struck down by the lord of baking at the moment. Nevertheless, the biscuits look wonderful. Good luck with mixmaster shopping. There's a few Kitchen Aid lookalikes which might be good quality minus the price tag. Keep us all informed...I think my mixmaster (courtesy of Grandma) may go at any minute.