MODERN VEGAN
Take your tea break up a notch with these rich, crumbly shortbread biscuits
Rich, crumbly shortbread biscuits
Richard Makin is a vegan cook and blogger. Find more of his recipes at Omagazine.com and follow him on Instagram @schoolnightvegan.
Vegan shortbread
50 MINUTES + CHILLING | MAKES 36 | EASY |
It’s important to use baking block (which is naturally vegan) for this recipe. You’ll usually find it with the chilled pre-rolled pastry in larger supermarkets (most do their own brand), where it’s often labelled ‘baking block for biscuits and pastries’. It is plant-based and has a low-solid content, which means it won’t brown too quickly, which causes a speckled, unevenly browned shortbread. Avoid using vegan ‘butters’ or spread for this recipe as they won’t give you as good a result.
plain flour 250g
icing sugar 75g
fine sea salt a pinch
baking block 175g, chilled (see intro)
caster sugar for sprinkling (optional)
• Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Slice the baking block into cubes and add to the bowl, tossing with the flour. Work the cubes into the flour by pinching everything together and rubbing the ingredients between your fingertips. Do this until you have a bowl of sandy-textured flour with no large lumps – the mixture will feel quite dry. Tip out the mixture onto a worksurface and knead it together briefly until it just forms a large ball of dough.
• Cut the dough in two, wrap each piece well and chill for 20 minutes. When you are ready to bake, roll out the doughs to 5mm thickness and cut into rounds using a 5-6cm biscuit cutter (alternatively, you could cut into fingers or squares using a sharp knife).
• Put the rounds onto one or two baking paper-lined trays and prick the surfaces with a fork. Sprinkle with a little caster sugar, if you like. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden on the surfaces. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack. Allow to cool fully before eating.
PER BISCUIT 67 KCALS | FAT 3.8G SATURATES 1.3G | CARBS 7.4G | SUGARS 2.1G FIBRE 0.3G | PROTEIN 0.7G | SALT 0.1G