Orange and Lavender shortbread

Baking something is a great activity to distract Milo with, particularly now that the weather is starting to get worse. I made this orange and lavender shortbread after having it one time at the Secret Herb Garden. It’s just a standard shortbread recipe with added orange and fresh lavender from outside our front door, but so delicious and feels quite fancy!

The orange flavour is quite subtle, so you could maybe increase it if you wanted. I actually used a packet or artificial orange rind called orangeback which is a German thing you can’t get in the UK. It says one packet is the equivalent of one orange’s worth of zest but I’m not sure. If you did put freshly grated rind in you’d probably get a stronger flavour.

We’ve made these twice, the pictures are from the first go, using Dave’s fancy shortbread stamp which turned out needing pretty ginormous circles, the second time I rolled the dough out slightly thicker and cut it into fingers and pricked the top with a fork.

250g butter
110g caster sugar
180g plain flour
Zest of one orange
Seeds from two stalks of fresh lavender (like in the pictures)

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and white. Add all the other ingredients. Roll out between 1 and 2cms thick and cut into shapes. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 degrees/gas 5 for 12-15 minutes – err on the side of caution as they are nicer when they haven’t begun to brown yet. Leave to cool before moving.