Hazelnut and Vanilla Shortbread

Hello World

I have decided to publish some of my favourite recipes for the world too see! Enjoy:

Hazelnut and Vanilla Shortbread

Shortbread is a fickle thing, it must have a delicate touch! Remember when you blend your nuts and butter not to go crazy or you just might end up with a hazelnut butter! Also when you are mixing in the flour not to overmix it or your shortbread will turn out heavy and dense.

This recipe is originally from the south china morning post by Susan Jung however we have added our own style to it.

100 grams of whole hazelnuts

90 grams of icing sugar

1/2 a vanilla pod (if you cant get your hands on a pod you can always substitute it for a few drops of vanilla essence)

1/2 tsp of fine sea salt

225 grams of unsalted butter (Try and let the butter soften at room temp. dont let your mixer suffer! =P)

250 grams of all purpose plain flour

Caster sugar

100 grams of cooking chocolate (chopped up!)

First things first preheat your oven to 180 degrees (or 356 farenheit) pop the hazelnuts into a tray and bake for around 10-15mins until you can smell their nutty aroma and their skins loosen. While they are still relatively hot rub the nuts in some paper towel to remove their skins.

Scrape the seeds out of the vanila pod by running your knife -carefully- down one side then sliding it along scooping up the sticky black seeds. Put the seeds, icing sugar, butter and 2/3 the nuts together in the food mixer. Blend into a fine mixture, then transfer the mixture into a bowl. Add the flour and mix lightly until incorporated.

Lightly grease a tray 20com by 22cm aprox. and smoothly line with tin foil. Pat the mixture into the tray around 2cm thick. At regular intervals poke holes with a fork then sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake for 30-45mins until firm and golden brown.

Allow the shortbread to cool sightly then lift away from the tin foil and place it on a chopping board, then using a serrated knife slice into rectangles or squares.

Melt the chocolate using a water bath. Dont let any of the water get into the chocolate while melting. Lattice or drizzle the chocolate on top of the shortbread. Dice up the rest of the hazelnuts to sprinkle on top.

There you go! Hazelnut and Vanilia Shortbread!

(Photo By Thomas Latter)