it was in the middle of preparing a lamb curry that a watery sun came out, but by that point the fragrance of the cardamoms had already seduced me and i had my heart set experimenting with a milk chocolate chip shortbread with cardamom and orange zest.
shortbread was the obvious choice, as this recipe contains 8oz of butter and i am attempting to lose a bit of weight (you will probably notice over the following posts, as i record the food i love to cook and eat, how regular and always half hearted these attempts are; it really takes only the slightest craving or excuse to throw me off course).this recipe, as i suspected it would be, was perfect for this afternoon's baking fest. it filled the entire house with a lovely smell of spice and orange, maybe not the types of smell you'd hope to find tempting in the middle of summer but truly comforting for this type of day. and it is certainly one i will file away for christmas time too.
recipe
8oz butter
4oz sugar + a bit extra for sprinkling
1oz cornflour
11oz plain flour
zest of one orange
1/2tsp crushed cardamom seeds
2-3 drops of vanilla extract
3 1/2oz milk chocolate drops
(feel free to substitute for dark chocolate)
method
- preheat the oven to gas mark 3, 160C or 140C with a fan.
- gently melt the butter either in a microwave or in a pan.
- add the orange zest, vanilla extract and the crushed cardamom into the melted butter;stir to make sure they are well mixed.
- add the cornflour, sugar and flour and mix well until they are all combined.
- mix in the chocolate drops and make sure they are evenly distributed through the mix otherwise it is just unfair.
- spread the mixture evenly into a swiss roll tin and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
- bake for 40-45 minutes and check the shortbread is cooked, it should be firm and going golden at the edges.
- cut, and then leave to cool. when cool turn out.
the results
these are a lovely, crumbly shortbread with a lovely sweetness from the chocolate and the orange and a delicious, subtle spicy undertone.
we enjoyed ours with a hot chocolate (made with cocoa bean's milk hot chocolate mix, of course!). i am taking them into work tomorrow to share round, so as not to eat them all myself; here's to actually hoping it is not a balmy summer's day....
the lamb curry, in case you were wondering, was mildly disappointing.
2 comments:
This recipe for milk chocolate chip shortbread with cardamon and orange looks delicious. I tried the Gin and Tonic chocolate for the first time today and I must say that the taste is very good! The flavour sits on the palette beautifully. Do you have any plans to release a Pims and fruit chocolate for Wimbledon?
By the way, here is a blog that you may be interested in. It is a friend of mine from Estonia who likes to experiment in the kitchen too: http://nami-nami.blogspot.com/
hi tom,
glad you like the look of the recipe, they certainly were a bit of a treat on a rainy monday morning!
funny you should mention chocolates inspired by other tipples, just last night me and sarah were talking through a 'cosmopolitan' chocolate with orange and cranberry. we will start experimenting with the pimm's - might have it ready just in time for next year's tounament (quite a final last night, wasn't it?)!
nami-nami looks great - looking forward to exploring it further...
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