Lemon Shortbread

This is based on a recipe I found on Buttermilk by Sam’s website. There is a great step-by-step walkthrough on how to make these there.

Ingredients

Shortbread

• 65g sugar
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 1 tsp of lemon juice
• 225g butter
• ¾ tsp fine sea salt
• 360g all-purpose flour
• 65g icing sugar

Glaze

• 130g icing sugar
• 2-3 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Zest the lemons, and squeeze out the juice
2. Rub the lemon zest into the granulated sugar (ideally caster sugar)
3. Mix the lemon-zested sugar with the butter. Original recipe suggests softening the butter, in practice I didn’t need to do this, the stand mixer with the paddle beater creamed the sugar and butter without issues.
4. Cover and rest for 1-4 hours
5. Add salt, icing sugar, lemon juice and flour and mix until flour is incorporated and dough is coming together
6. Roll out on baking paper into an 8″ × 8″ square (20 cm × 20 cm). The dough will be about an inch (2.5 cm) deep. This dough doesn’t rise, so make sure that the thickness reflects the height you’d like to see in the final biscuit.
7. Square off the edges and make it look nice, then chill for 30-60 mins (with 15 minutes to go, preheat oven—no fan—to 180°C/350°F )
8. Dock the dough (prick it lots with a fork) to make sure it doesn’t flake and bubble, and then bake for 30 minutes
9. Slice the dough into eight vertical strips, then divide into thirds horizontally
10. Carefully separate the biscuits on the baking paper, and bake for a final 10 minutes.
11. Remove biscuits to cooling rack
12. Prepare the glaze by mixing all of the sugar with a single tablespoon of lemon juice. Gradually add lemon juice to loosen the glaze. The consistency should be similar to honey, or a little stiffer
13. Once biscuits are fully cooled, drizzle glaze over them

Notes

• The original recipe calls for three lemons. I used two and it was absolutely lemony enough.
• It’s always worth buying organic lemons
• The original recipe calls for vanilla. I didn’t put any in, but it might take it to the next level.
• The original recipe adds salt into the glaze, but I did not, and didn’t miss it.
• The original recipe calls for lemon extract (?). I just used lemon juice.
• I used normal sugar and normal flour for this. I think caster sugar and low protein flour would be better. I’d also consider changing the proportion of granulated sugar and icing sugar in the shortbread to reduce the icing sugar, as I think it might make the dough a bit less claggy.
• The original recipe makes a lot of fuss about tapioca starch. In Hungary, adulterating icing sugar with starch is not permitted, so I can’t test whether this matters or not.