I absolutely love Earl Grey tea. I would go so far as to say that it's one of my top 10 flavours!
I treated myself to a cup of this lovely stuff yesterday from TeaPigs (any tea lovers really need to take a look at their website - it's tea heaven!).
The only downside to my civilized afternoon was a lack of biscuits... I really do need biscuits with my tea, don't you?!
Well, I decided that shortbread would be the very thing.
To accompany the gorgeous bergamot citrus flavours of this tea, I have added delicate lemon, lime and cardamom flavours that I think work really well. Let me know what you think.
Preheat your oven to 170°C.- Cream together 225g butter and 100g caster sugar.
- Gently stir in 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 250g plain flour
- Add the zest of 2 limes, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice (or a few drops of lemon flavouring)
- Then take the seeds from 8-10 cardamom pods, crush them to a powder and add them to the mixture
- Stir the mixture. Once it starts to clump together use your fingers to gently press the mixture together into a soft dough
- Put the dough in the fridge for 10 mins (otherwise it will fall apart when you roll it out)
- Flour the surface and roll it out to about 1cm thick
- Use a small cutter (it will make around 25 biscuits) to cut the mixture into small circles
- Put them onto a lightly floured tray and put back into the fridge for 5 mins (this is not essential but it will help your biscuits to hold their shape in the oven so they wont spread out and become too thin)
- Bake for around 10 mins until the shortbread has just a hint of golden colour
- Take them out and sprinkle with caster sugar while they are hot
- Leave them to cool and store in a tin (they'll keep for around a week)
If you don't like the sound of any of the flavours then it will work just as well without them (just add a little vanilla for a plain but delicious alternative).
I hope that you will enjoy them with your afternoon tea - whatever your brew of choice!
