Earl Grey and lemon shortbreads, very very addictive and eggless

I think this blog has more sweet recipes than anything else, and I still have plenty of recipes which I didn’t have time to post.
No matter how many biscuit recipes you have one more is always a good thing.
Consider the sablés dough, which is a shortbread variety, well, there is an infinite number of ideas to present it. However, most of the time, it requires cookie cutters or cookie press.

But the way how these shortbreads are made is just as easy as it can get as you will see later on..Oh and they get better the next day; It just seems that the tea leaves infuses better.

I added lemon zest because earl grey and lemon are one of those combinations which just seem to work.

So, mix, roll, freeze, cut, bake…how easy is that?

Ingredients
Recipe adapted from here
Makes + 24 shortbreads
Prep: 5 min/ Rest: 30 hour/ Baking: 13 min
  • 240g of flour 
  • 20g of ground almonds (almond flour, optional)
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 200 g of butter
  • 100 g fine sugar (original recipe calls for 150g)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla beans
  • 2 tbps of loose Earl Grey tea leaves
  • Zest of 1/2 lemon (optional)
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 3 tbps of fine semolina (not the superfine one) for rolling
Preparation
In a food processor, blend the flour with the tea leaves until you see black little spots looking like vanilla beans.

Add the other ingredients except the semolina and give a few pulses until they’re all combined or almost there.

Give the last mix with the palm of your hand against the worktop just to make sure that everything is really combined.

Divide the dough into 2 and place each part on a sheet of plastic wrap/cling film and roll into a log about 2 to 3 cm in diameter. Set them aside while you sprinkle the semolina over the plastic wrap. Roll them again over it.

Wrap and freeze for 30 min or until firm.

Preheat the oven between 170 and 180 C.

Slice the log into 4 mm to 6 mm thick discs. Place on baking sheets covered with baking paper, with a space between the disks.

Bake for 12 min approx until the edges are brown.

Once out of the oven, wait 5 min before you fiddle with the biscuits. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
These biscuits are just amazing eaten the next day with a cup of tea…
The biscuits keep well for 1 week. The dough freezes well for months.

The biscuits can also be dusted with icing sugar before serving them.

Note:  using ground almond in the dough and then rolling it in semolina give an extra crunch..but it’s totally optional..

Author: Nada

Nada Kiffa is an Expert in Moroccan cooking and her recipes are coming from a lineage of Moroccan home and professional cooks. Cooking classes and posted articles are inspired by her family life in Morocco and elsewhere. You will learn what makes a dish Moroccan before learning how to execute it. You will also learn how to work around recipes and cut corners without missing on the flavour.

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