Shortbread fingers with raspberries

Raspberries and raspberry coulis form the perfect complement to these exquisite shortbread fingers, raising them above mere biscuits.

 

For 18 biscuits:   160gr softened butter 75gr icing sugar 2 pinches salt 1 level tsp cardamon 1 level tsp powdered ginger 30gr egg white  (from a medium size egg) 225gr plain flour 1 baking sheet For decoration: 300gr raspberry jelly 90 raspberries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 
  Mix butter, sugar, salt and spices together in a large bowl.  Add the egg white and mix well with a fork.
• Add the flour little by little, until you have a ball of fairly soft dough.  Cover with clingfilm and put in a cool place for 2 hours.
  
• When the time is up, place half the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and flatten with the palm of your hand.  Roll out to a thickness of 4mm, as close to rectangular as you can get for ease of cutting out.  To achieve this, bring the edges to the centre, then roll out again, between the 2 sheets of paper.  Repeat till you have a large rectangle.
  
• Once the pastry is rolled out you may find that it is too soft to handle, especially in summer. In this case, slide the whole thing onto your baking sheet and set in a cool place for an hour.
  
• Pre-heat oven to 160°.
• When the pastry has firmed up, cut into rectangles 12cmX3cm. There should be 18 per sheet.  Leave them on the sheet, slightly spaced out.  Cover with a second sheet of baking parchment and cook for 15-19 mins, checking them from time to time.  The biscuits are cooked when golden.
• Leave to cool on the baking sheet.
  
• Decoration :  Soften the raspberry jelly over a gentle heat and leave to cool.  When it starts to set, spread 2 tsp of jelly over each biscuit.  Place 5 raspberries on top and leave to cool.
  
  Variation :  for those who like a challenge, you can make your own coulis as follows. Blend 240gr raspberries with 120gr sugar and the juice of ½a a lemon.  Push through a fine sieve to remove the seeds.  Soak 1 leaf of gelatine for in cold water 2 mins.  Heat the raspberry coulis, then, off the heat, add the drained leaf of gelatine.  Mix well to obtain an homogenous texture.  Leave to cool and use to spread over the biscuits.

 

 

You can make the rectangles in advance, they will keep 15 days in a sealed tin. 

These shortbreads easily accompany a sorbet red fruit, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.