Christmas Shortbreads

With a soft crumbly texture

 

Makes 35 à 40 biscuits:   250g flour 125g caster sugar 125g softened butter,  cut into small pieces   zest of 1 lemon 1 pinch of salt 1 small egg(50g) icing(optional): white of a small egg 60g icing sugar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, sugar and butter.  Rub the fat into the flour.  Make sure that you don’t work the mixture for longer than 5 minutes or the butter will become too soft in contact with your fingers. This can also be done in a food mixer:  stop before the mixture binds together and becomes a dough.  
  
• Mix in the egg to obtain a smooth dough.   If you’re using a food mixer, this will take 30 seconds.
  Shape the dough into a ball, place it between tow sheets of floured baking parchment and roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 5 or 6 mm.  Place it on a baking sheet, still within the sheets of baking parchment, and refrigerate for an hour.  
  
• Preheat the oven to 160°.
  
• The dough will be firm after an hour and easier to cut.  Remove the baking parchment and cut different shapes, such as stars, moons or hearts.  Place the biscuits on a baking sheet lined with fresh baking parchment and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
  
• Leave to cool, then sprinkle with icing sugar .
• Variation: For those of you who are brave enough, instead of sprinkling with icing sugar, you can decorate them with a royal icing:
• In a bowl, mix 20g of egg white with 60g icing sugar, whisk it briskly with a fork. Then simply coat each biscuit with a brushful of the icing mixture.   
  
• Leave to harden overnight.   

 

 

 

Moons: