Greek shortbread
Cookbook Challenge: Week 5
Theme: Greek
Recipe: Greek shortbread
From: The Australian Women’s Weekly – The Complete Book of Modern Entertaining
Second recipe: Lamb skewers with tzatziki
From: Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cookery Course
This weekend, Rilsta from My Food Trail invited me, Kat from Spatula, Spoon & Saturday, and Arale79 from Meals on Budget over to do some baking. The idea was to bring a recipe, ingredients, do the baking, and then eat our creations!
I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and do Greek Shortbread so I could tick off my Cookbook Challenge recipe.
After a delicious lunch of Rilsta’s moussaka, and Arale’s watermelon and feta salad, Kat and I headed into the kitchen to make some baked goods. Let me tell you, Rilsta’s kitchen is the cleanest, most organised kitchen I have ever been in. Since I’m a rather messy cook/baker, I had to try my best not to get flour, butter or sugar everywhere!
Fortunately, the shortbread were easy to make, so there wasn’t much of an opportunity to make a mess. However, I over softened the butter, so the shortbread dough was EXTREMELY soft, and very difficult to shape. I mostly plopped bits of dough on to the tray and poked them into rough crescent shapes!
When the biscuits were ready, they were meltingly soft and crumbly. I think that may have been because the butter was so soft. I didn’t do very well coating them in icing sugar though – whoops!
We finished off the afternoon with Kat’s delicious semolina and yoghurt syrup cake and some home made ice cream from Rilsta. It was a fun day, thanks gals!
When I got home, I managed to do another recipe for the Challenge – lamb skewers with tzatziki. I thought the lamb was tasty, but I do wish I had tasted the marinade before adding lemon juice. I thought it was a touch on the sour side. But apart from that, the lamb was nice and tender and I would try the marinade again.
See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.
Update: Head to My Food Trail to see the round up of other people’s posts this week.
Greek Shortbread
From The Australian Women’s Weekly – The Complete Book of Modern Entertaining
250g unsalted butter, chopped and softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (80g) pure icing sugar, sifted
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon brandy
1/2 cup (70g) finely chopped toasted flaked almomnds
2 cups (300g) plain flour
1/2 cup (75g) self-raising flour
pure icing sugar to coat
Preheat the oven to 160°C.
Beat the butter, vanilla extract and sugar in an electric mixer until it is pale and fluffy.
Beat in the egg yolk and the brandy.
Stir in the almonds and the sifted flours.
Take a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a sausage shape, tapering slightly at the ends. Bend it into a crescent. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
Place the shortbread on a lightly greased oven tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until slightly browned. Leave on the trays for 5 minutes to cool.
Dust the shortbreads heavily with sifted icing sugar and cool on a rack.
Lamb skewers with tzatziki
Adapted from Darina Allen’s Ballymaloe Cookery Course
Serves 8
900g lean shoulder or leg of lamb
For the marinade:
300ml natural yoghurt
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 teaspoons ground corinader
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon (I recommend tasting your marinade to see how sour it is before adding this)
Cut the lamb meat into 2.5cm cubes and season with salt and pepper.
Mix together the marinade, and put the meat into it for at least an hour (I left mine overnight).
Drain the meat and thread the pieces on to skewers.
Grill for 7-10 minutes on a barbecue until cooked, and serve with the tzatziki.
Tzatziki
1 cucumber, peeled and diced into 3-5mm cubes
salt
1 garlic clove, crushed
425ml greek or natural yoghurt
1 heaped tablespoon mint, freshly chopped
salt and papper
Put the diced cucumber into a sieve and sprinkle with salt. Leave it to drain for 30 minutes.
Dry the cucumber on kitchen paper and then place into a bowl with the garlic, yoghurt and mint. Stir well to combine and season with salt and pepper.
mademoiselle délicieuse
December 20, 2009 @ 11:43 pm
I love Greek almond shortbread, and am particularly dangerous when left with a plate of them if watching tv!
Sarah
December 21, 2009 @ 8:20 am
Oh I love Greek shortbread! They remind me of vanillakipferl. Yours look very cute.
xox Sarah
Maria@TheGourmetChallenge
December 21, 2009 @ 9:25 am
oh yum, this biscuits look delicous! My mum makes something similar but with LOTS of lemon zest
Rilsta @ My Food Trail
December 21, 2009 @ 9:27 am
Thanks for coming over and the lovely shortbread, as well as making some for me without the almonds! The soft texture made them different from normal shortbread which was a nice change.
Adrian @ Food Rehab
December 21, 2009 @ 1:18 pm
Nice- I had a tonne of greek shortbread last week at a xmas party. Could not get enough.
Iron Chef Shellie
December 21, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
yum! I was going to do Greek shortbread too, but I didn't have enough time!
Conor @ HoldtheBeef
December 21, 2009 @ 6:22 pm
there's something about crescent shapes that just makes you want to pick them up more than usual, I'm not sure why..
both dishes look tops!
arale79
December 21, 2009 @ 7:02 pm
I lurve your shortbread, i brought it home to share with my husband but on second thought i ate it alll ha ha ha. it's nice seeing you as well
chitchatchomp@yahoo.com.au
December 21, 2009 @ 8:11 pm
Those biscuits look gorgeous. Wish I could bake as well as you!
Cherrie Pie
December 21, 2009 @ 9:51 pm
wow those those shortbread looks so yummy. I've never tasted Greek short bread before so would love to try the recipe.
penny aka jeroxie
December 21, 2009 @ 10:08 pm
Both dishes look absolutely yummilicious! I have jumped onto the bandwagon and started this week too.. heh
Agnes
December 21, 2009 @ 10:44 pm
mademoiselle: they are so moreish, aren't they!
Sarah: Thanks! I love all kinds of shortbread 😀
Maria: Mhmm lemon zest in them would be fantastic!
Rilsta: It was a pleasure! Thanks again for a fun day. 🙂
Adrian: I find it hard to stop eating them too!
Shellie: After your marathon cooking weekend, I'm not surprised you ran out of time!
Conor: maybe because they're shaped to fit the fingers? 😉
Arale: Hehee! Good on you for eating them rather than sharing with your husband!
Cherrie Pie: They're easy to make – give it a try!
Penny: welcome to the Challenge! Looking forward to seeing what you make in the following weeks 🙂
Kat (Spatula, Spoon and Saturday)
December 22, 2009 @ 9:45 pm
Oooh that reminds me I still have one of your bickies left. Tee hee hee. It was lovely meeting you. Everyone else could just comment, I'm going to eat it! Bwahahahah!
Agnes
December 23, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
Kat: Hehee, hope you enjoyed the biscuit! It was great to meet you as well!