Coconut & lime shortbread
Decorating Easter biscuits is a great school-holiday activity to share with the kids.
MAKES 10 PREP 20min, plus chilling COOK about 12min
• 75g desiccated coconut
• 125g plain flour
• 125g unsalted butter, chilled and chopped
• 50g caster sugar
• 30g cornflour
• Finely grated zest 2 limes
• Icing sugar, to dust
TO DECORATE
• 2 medium egg whites
• 500g icing sugar
• Food colouring in pink, yellow and blue
• Sugared edible flowers
1 In a large frying pan, toast the coconut over a medium heat for about 2min, or until just fragrant.
Set aside to cool.
2 In a food processor, blitz flour, butter, caster sugar, cornflour, lime zest and toasted desiccated coconut until mixture just comes together into a dough. Shape into a disc and wrap in baking parchment. Chill for 30min.
3 Line 2 large baking trays with baking parchment. Dust a work surface with icing sugar and roll out the chilled dough to the thickness of a £1 coin (about 5mm). Cut out 10 biscuits using an egg-shaped cutter, about
8cm. Put biscuits on to lined baking trays and chill for 30min.
4 Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Bake biscuits for 10-12min, until just golden at edges and sandy to touch. Cool on trays for 5min before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
5 For the icing, in a large clean bowl, beat the egg whites with a handheld electric whisk to form stiff peaks. Sift over the icing sugar and whisk until the mixture is thick and glossy.
6 Divide icing among 3 bowls and colour each, adding food colouring 1 drop at a time to create pastel shades. Spoon 1/3 of each into a piping bag and cut a small hole in the end (about 1mm) and pipe around outline of each egg. Gradually add 1-2tbsp of water to each bowl of icing to loosen. Spoon into new piping bags, cut a small hole in each (about 1mm) and ice centre of each biscuit. Decorate with edible flowers and contrasting coloured icings, if you like.
GET AHEAD Make biscuit dough up to the end of step 2 up to 1 day ahead; leave in the fridge. Remove from the fridge at least 2hr before you plan to bake, so that it is not too hard to roll. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
PER BISCUIT: CALS 421; FAT 15G; SAT FAT 11G; CARBS 68G