PISTACHIO & CARDAMOM SHORTBREADS

Yotam Ottolenghi is one of best chefs in UK. I must say that I like also his cookbooks and his recipes are healthy and interesting. 

Try his shortbreads :). 

Yotam Ottolenghi recipe from “The Cookbook” with my changes

Ingredients:

• 8 cardamom pods
• 200g unsalted butter. cold
• 25g ground rice
• 240g plain flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 40g icing sugar
• 60g shelled pistachio nuts
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tbsp vanilla sugar

Method:

1. Crush cardamom pods, then remove the skins. Ground them to a fine powder.

2. Combine together: cardamom powder, ground rice, unsalted butter, plain flour, egg yolk, icing sugar and salt. Do not overwork dough.

3. Roll dough with your hands into a log 4cm in diameters. Wrap it in cling film and leave it in the fridge for at about 1 hour.

4. Chop the pistachios finely but leave some bigger bits in it. Scatter the pistachios on a flat tray.

5. Roll dough in the pistachios.

6. Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas Mark 2

7. Cut the log into slices about 1 cm thick. Lay them out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment, spacing them at least 2 cm apart. Dust them with vanilla sugar.

8. Bake the biscuits for roughly 20 minutes. They must not take on too much colour but should remain golden.

9. Keep cookies in a sealed jar for about one week.