Rosemary Shortbread

If you are British and you don't like tea and shortbread, I don't think you deserve to live on this island. I'm sorry, but shortbread is one of the reasons for my existence. So bring on the rosemary shortbread, scrummy.

Ingredients

55g caster sugar

1 tsp rosemary leaves

115g softened butter

1 lemon, zest finely grated

170g plain flour

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/gas mark 32 and prepare a non-stick baking sheet.

2. Place the sugar and rosemary leaves in a food processor. Whizz until the rosemary is very finely chopped then add the butter and lemon zest and process until pale and creamy. Transfer to a large bowl and beat in the flour until it forms a stiff dough.

3. Place this on a sheet of greaseproof paper and lay another sheet on top. Then gently press down with a rolling pin and roll out to 3-5mm thickness. Lift off the top sheet and stamp out the biscuits with your chosen cutter. Using a palette knife, lift them off the bottom sheet of paper and carefully transfer to the non-stick baking sheet.

4. Prick the biscuits with a fork and bake in the centre of the oven for 12 minutes or until tinged a very pale brown. Remove to a cooling rack and leave to firm. Dust with caster sugar, if desired.

I took this picture just as the biscuits came out of the oven. Because there is nothing better than a freshly baked shortbread biscuit, is there? And if there is, I would like to know about it. It also explains why they don't look nice, they weren't presented nicely and weren't dusted with sugar. But neither am I. So what you see is what you get.

These were super simply to make, took less than 30 minutes to cook and prepare. I tried them with a cup of tea, oh my god, I can't think of a better combination.

I've got some really exciting bakes/fundraising things coming up so keep an eye out!