Chocolate shortbread biscuits :)

The other night, not too long after eating dinner (I made another batch of Ethiopian berbere stew because it was pretty much free) Nadine and I decided to really crave dessert. Which was kind of annoying because for some reason I wanted apple pie but had no apples, and lacked the energy to make it anyway, so we decided on shortbread. Anyone can make shortbread. It's made from the 3 most basic ingredients almost everyone has in the pantry/fridge: butter, flour, sugar. Or vegan margarine in our case. I decided to chuck in some cocoa powder to make it even more of a treat.

Chocolate shortbread biscuits

Ingredients:

225g vegan margarine

3/4 cup icing sugar

1 cup cornflour

1.5 cups plain flour (wholemeal is delicious)

1/4 tsp salt

2-3 tbsp cocoa powder (optional)

Method:

Mix all ingredients together to form a soft dough. Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thick and cut into squares or whatever shape you desire. I sometimes use star cutters. Prick with a fork. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 150 degrees C (or 300 degrees F). Let cool a bit before serving. (They really do taste better this way!)

Ours could have baked for another 5 minutes or so, but we couldn't be bothered and they firmed up very nicely in the fridge overnight. (We have to keep stuff in the fridge in this climate because mould forms almost instantly on fresh baked goods. I once lost half a batch of muffins that I tried to serve for dessert once :( )

Cornflour makes for lighter shortbread, icing sugar ditto. Roll it out thinner for a 'shorter' biscuit. The best ones I ever made were nice and crumbly.

You're also supposed to cream the butter and sugar together first, but this time I forgot because it wasn't written down on the page in front of me. My way worked nicely though :) I just made it like pastry, but sort of smooshed everything together by hand instead of rubbing in the margarine.

I've never made chooclate shortbread before, and these kind of turned out like little soft brownies. Yum :)