Cranberry and Macadamia Shortbread

I normally stick to a basic shortbread when I make it, using Mrs Beeton’s classic recipe (which I will make and blog about soon, I promise!): it’s fool-proof and works perfectly every time. This time, however, I thought I’d try something a little bit different with Edd Kimber’s Cranberry and Macadamia Shortbread. I’d never used macadamia nuts before, and love cranberries so thought it’d be worth a shot. As with every recipe of Edd’s that I’ve recently tried, it worked like a treat!

The original recipe can be found in Edd’s book, The Boy Who Bakes, but my slightly edited version is below.

Ingredients:
225g plain flour
75g caster sugar, plus extra for decoration
150g unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
50g cranberries
75g macadamia nuts, chopped
Zest of 1 orange

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Celsius in a fan oven), Gas Mark 4, and line several baking trays with baking parchment. Put the flour in a bowl with the sugar, butter and salt, and mix with a hand-held electric mixer until breadcrumby and just before a dough begins to form. (Or, you can rub in the butter by hand to achieve the same result. I’m just a wuss and don’t like ruining my nails!)

Stir in the cranberries, macadamia nuts and orange zest, and then bring together the mixture into a smooth dough by hand.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out into an even layer of about 1cm thickness. Using a 7cm round cookie cutter, cut out as many shortbread rounds as you can, then knead the excess dough, roll out and repeat.

Transfer the shortbread onto the baking trays and bake for 20 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Be careful not to overbake – the shortbread should be a light golden brown in colour. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the tray then carefully move to a wire rack to cool completely.

When cool, sprinkle with caster sugar to serve.

This shortbread went down really, really well at home! The chewy cranberries and crunchy macadamia nuts added a completely different texture to the traditional shortbread – it’s a combination I would never have thought to use but I’m glad I did! In the future, I’d like to experiment with other fruit/nut blends. The shortbread itself was buttery, light and melted in your mouth: a real testament to Edd’s skills! This is a recipe I’ve not just tried, but would whole heartedly recommend.
It looks like I’ve found a recipe to rival the legendary Mrs Beeton – who’d have thought that was possible?!