This recipe can be used as a starting point either as a biscuit on its own or if you making bars, such as millionaire's shortbread.
The basic dough is versatile enough to be shaped in to anything and rolled to varying degrees of thickness. You can also play around with different flavourings, adding in zest from a citrus fruit, chocolate chips, currants etc (I've used lemons in this recipe).
It's my default recipe and I haven't found a better one yet!
N.B. This works best if you make the night before you need it.
Makes Approximately 15
150g unsalted butter chilled and cubed
68g golden caster sugar
136g plain flour
82g ground almonds
Zest of two lemons
Icing sugar
Lemon juice
edible flowers (I used violas)
Simply place all of the ingredients in a food processor and blitz enough so that a dough just comes together (don't over work it). Pat the dough relatively flat rather than in a ball so that it's easier to roll later on, wrap in cling film and chill overnight
Preheat oven to 140c (fan) and line two baking trays with parchment paper. Lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough out to thickness of approximately 1cm. Cut out 5cm diameter biscuits using a pastry cutter. You can easily re-roll the off cuts until it's all used up. Arrange on the baking trays with a small space in between them, and chill for 30 mins. Bake in the oven for 30-40 mins until the biscuits just start to colour. Remove from the oven, dust with caster sugar (or not if decorating with edible flowers) and cool completely.
Make up an icing using the icing sugar and lemon juice. The consistency should be thick but still droppable from a spoon. Spread this over the top of the biscuits and then gently press a flower in to the icing. Leave to set.