These easy-to-make shortbread biscuits taste extra special with finely chopped Spanish Persimon®, pistachios and lime zest. Perfect for Bonfire Night, and a great idea for homemade Christmas gifts. Or why not make some to sell at Christmas fetes?
Makes approximately 25
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 12-15 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 Spanish Persimon®
- 225g butter, at room temperature
- 110g caster sugar
- 325g plain flour
- 25g cornflour
- Pinch salt
- 50g shelled pistachio nuts, finely chopped
- Finely grated zest of 1 lime
- 100g icing sugar
- Tiny gold or silver edible stars, for decoration
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/Gas Mark 4. Line 2 or 3 baking trays with baking paper (if you only have 1 baking tray, cook in batches).
- Remove and discard the leafy top from the Spanish Persimon®, then chop the fruit very finely.
- Beat together the butter and caster sugar until combined, using a wooden spoon. (The mixture doesn’t need to be light). Add the flour, cornflour and salt and work them in with the wooden spoon. Add the Persimon®, pistachio nuts and lime zest, then use your hand to bring the mixture together.
- Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a few moments until smooth – but avoid over-handling. Roll out on a lightly floured surface and stamp out biscuits with a star-shaped cutter (or just use a round one). Re-roll the trimmings to make about 25 biscuits in total, placing them on the baking sheets.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until pale golden brown. Cool on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
- Mix the icing sugar with a little water to make a thin icing. Drizzle over the biscuits and sprinkle them with the edible stars.
Cook’s tip: If you have a nut allergy, simply omit the pistachios.
Nutritional values | per biscuit (41g) | per 100g |
Energy | 703kj/168kcal | 1714kj/410kcal |
Fat | 8.6g | 21g |
of which saturates | 4.8g | 11.8g |
Carbohydrate | 20.2g | 49g |
of which sugars | 9.7g | 23.7g |
Fibre | 1g | 2.4g |
Protein | 1.9g | 4.5g |
Salt | 0.2g | 0.5g |