Orange kisses with cream cheese centres

MAKES ABOUT 24

Truly, if a kiss could be embodied in a biscuit, this would be it. These are the shortest shortbreads you will ever encounter, filled with divine salty–sweet orange-infused cream cheese. Instead of lemon juice, I’ve used white balsamic vinegar, which is sweet and gives a lovely roundness to the acidity. I suggest you fill these as you want to eat them; otherwise they need to be refrigerated and, even though still lovely, won’t have that melt-in-your-mouth magic. 250g unsalted butter, softened ½ teaspoon salt Finely grated zest of ½ orange 60g (½ cup) wheaten cornflour, sifted 225g (1½ cups) plain flour, sifted

CREAM CHEESE FILLING

250g cream cheese, at room temperature 50g unsalted butter, softened Finely grated zest of ½ orange 90g (¾ cup) icing sugar 1½ tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

1 Preheat the oven to 170°C fan-forced. Line two large baking trays with baking paper. 2 To make the shortbreads, combine the butter, salt and zest in a medium mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy. Add the cornflour and flour, and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined – over-mixing will “unshorten” the mixture. Transfer the mixture to a large piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle, and pipe 4cm rosettes onto the prepared baking trays. You will end up with about 48 biscuit halves. 3 Bake for 15-25 minutes until the kisses are golden brown. Cool completely before filling. 4 To make the cream cheese filling, combine the cream cheese, butter, zest and half the icing sugar in a medium mixing bowl, and whisk with an electric mixer on high speed until combined. Add the remaining icing sugar, and whisk until pale and fluffy. Add the balsamic vinegar, and whisk by hand until just combined. 5 Transfer to a piping bag with a 1cm diameter hole snipped into the tip, and pipe about a teaspoon of filling to sandwich between 2 biscuits. Repeat until all the biscuits are used up. These keep well for up to 2 weeks if kept refrigerated in an airtight container.