Lavender and lemon shortbread

Ingredients

• 450g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 cups white flour (I often use 3 1/2 cups white flour and use some seedy flour for the remainder)
• 1 & 1/2 table spoon dried lavender flowers
• Zest of one lemon
• Juice of half a lemon

Method

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.

Add the lemon zest and juice.

Add flour and mix to form a soft dough. It might feel like too much flour but it's not.

Add the dried lavender flowers.

Roll the shortbread mixture into logs - thin or thick and chill for an hour. You can leave it in the fridge for a few days if you don't want to bake them immediately.

Remove from the fridge and slice the dough into the desired thickness.

Bake at 180c for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of the biscuits.

Optional: lavender sugar

The Chef Brian Turner, when he came to visit the farm, had me sprinkle a little lavender sugar on top of each biscuit as they went into the oven.

To make lavender sugar just add a couple of fresh sprigs to a jar of caster sugar. Tightly seal and leave for a couple of weeks before using.