Rose petal and cardamom shortbread
The Roseraie de l’Haÿ variety of rose in our garden produces wonderfully fragrant blooms. I like to gather the petals and dry them in the slow-cook oven of my Esse stove for a couple of hours, filling the kitchen with their gorgeous perfume.
I use the dried petals in these crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits. They make the most of the rose’s fragrance and would be the perfect edible gift.
Note that you need to dry and cool the rose petals before you start making the shortbread. If you don’t have any rose petals, you could make chocolate shortbread instead – simply replace 30g of the cornflour with cocoa powder.
MAKES ABOUT 22 BISCUITS, depending on their size1 large handful of fresh rose petals (or more, if you want to make extra to use another time)
7 green cardamom pods
180g butter, softened
90g golden caster sugar
170g spelt flour
100g cornflour
First, pick your roses – ideally on a dry, sunny day. Gently remove the petals and spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Put them in your oven set to its lowest setting for a couple of hours, until dry and papery, but not brown. Leave to cool thoroughly, and store in an airtight container until you want to use them.
Lightly crack the cardamom seeds and extract the black seeds. Discard the husks.
Put the butter and cardamom seeds into a mixing bowl and beat until soft, then add the sugar and beat well. Add the flour, cornflour and a handful of crushed dried rose petals, and mix well to give a soft dough. (Alternatively, put the butter, sugar, cardamom seeds, flour, cornflour and a handful of crushed dried rose petals into a food processor, and pulse until a soft dough forms.)
Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 170˚C (150˚C fan) and lightly flour your work surface. Cut the ball of dough in two, and roll out one half until the thickness of a pound coin.
Use a cutter of your chosen shape to stamp out your biscuits, then gather the trimmings and re-roll as necessary. Place the biscuits on a lined baking tray,
spacing them out well.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Let them cool on the tray for 10 minutes, then transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat
with the remaining dough.
The biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to a week.
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Electric For drying the rose petals, use the slow-cook oven. For best results, bake the biscuits with the steam vent open.
Wood-fired For drying the rose petals, place them on a wire rack near the stove for several hours. For baking the biscuits, the oven dial should read between MOD and HOT.
Recipe from my book Summer