Heyo!
So, the first week of Blogtober has come to a close, and I must say I'm actually rather enjoying it all! I am really liking how much this is pushing me to write even when I didn't feel up to it, and also how much it is pushing me to be creative with my content ideas and also my own style of writing. Another good thing to come from this is my new found confidence to take and edit blog photos, something I haven't really been doing until now, but something I am really enjoying a lot! I think it's safe to say it's going pretty well, so i hope it continues as the month progresses and you're all really enjoying it too!
I thought it would be nice to share with you guys a recipe I like to use when I want to make shortbread biscuits. I find it doesn't make the really buttery kind like non-vegan ones, but just very nice biscuits that taste amazing as they are, with chocolate, with icing or with a cuppa! I thought seeing at it's the spookiest season of all, I would make these into Halloween shortbreads, just for fun and also because I got these really cool cookie cutters from the Hobbycraft near my house on a 3 for 2 deal, which I saw as a huge bargain! I'm excited to use them for lots of biscuits, I might even cut out my sandwiches too for extra spooky fun! So without further delay, here's my go-to recipe for vegan shortbread!
Spooky Shortbread Recipe
Makes 21 (and a bit) biscuits
Ingredients:
300g plain flour
100g caster sugar
200g vegan margarine
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt (this helps bring out the buttery taste!)
Method:
1. Cream together the margarine and caster sugar, and then add in the vanilla extract and the salt, combine this thoroughly until it is of a smooth consistency
2. Sift in the plain flour using a sieve and mix this into the buttery mixture until there are no lumps and it forms a dough. I found that mixing it in until it was mainly one big lump of dough and some breadcrumb bits and then using my hands to form the dough to be the best way to do this
3. Roll the dough into a ball/lump and wrap this in cling film and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I found the best thing to do is wait for an hour but half an hour will be okay if you're in a rush!
4. When it is ten minutes before the dough is ready, pre-heat the oven to 140 degrees celsius (fan oven, 160 degrees celsius for a conventional oven) and grease a baking tray. Use parchment paper if you would prefer, but I never use it and my biscuits always turn out fine
5. Roll the dough out until it is around 4mm in thickness, and then cut out your shapes using either cutters, or by cutting them out freehand with a knife
6. Place the biscuits on the tray and bake for 15-17 minutes. When baked they will be a golden-brown colour, so you'll be able to tell by eye if you don't like timing things or if your oven is a bit hotter/colder than most (all ovens are different and it baffles me!)
6. Once baked, allow them to cool for a bit and then move them onto a cooling rack, allowing them to cool evenly and become ready for either eating or icing!
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I thought they would be better off plain, hence why I didn't spend time icing them all but it is definitley something that could easily be done if you wanted to by mixing some icing sugar with water and potentially some food colouring.
Another alternative would be to melt some dark chocolate and then dip the biscuits either partially or whole into it for a chocolatey treat! This recipe can be adapted to make a bigger or smaller batch, the key to shortbread is to follow the 3:2:1 ratio for flour:butter:sugar, so follow this and you can't really go wrong!
I hope you enjoy this recipe, and I hope they don't get eaten all at once! They can keep in an airtight container for around five days before they go off, but I doubt they'll be around that long!
B x
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