'The Great SA Bake Off': Nasreen’s wildflower & elderberry shortbread

15 November 2016 - 19:53 By Nasreen Chamda
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Nasreen’s wildflower & elderberry shortbread recipe Sandwiched together with elderflower buttercream and topped with edible flowers, these shortbread biscuits look as good as they taste.

Nasreen’s wildflower & elderberry shortbread recipe

Sandwiched together with elderflower buttercream and topped with edible flowers, these shortbread biscuits look as good as they taste.
Image: BBC Lifestyle

Joburg industrial psychologist Nasreen Chamda whipped up these impressive biscuits in the fourth episode of 'The Great South African Bake Off' 2016. Try her recipe

Makes: 24 biscuits

Shortbread:

250g butter

125ml (1/2 cup) oil

120g icing sugar

5ml (1tsp) vanilla paste

28g cornflour

5g salt

60g rice flour

360g (3 cups) cake flour

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Flower topping:

24 purple pansies or other edible flowers

1 egg, beaten, and mixed with 30ml (2 tbsp) milk to create an egg wash

60g granulated sugar

2.5g lavender edible glitter

Elderflower buttercream:

95g white butter, softened

3.5g milk

45g elderflower syrup

1g purple food colouring

225g icing sugar

7.5g ACTi-white powder (egg white powder)

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Method:

1) Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line and grease three sheet pans.

2) To make the shortbread, cream the butter, oil, icing sugar and vanilla paste together. Sift the dry ingredients together, add to the butter mixture and mix well to form a dough.

3) Divide the dough into four equal parts, each weighing 238g. Chill the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.

4) Place a portion of the chilled dough onto a board. Roll it out to 5mm thick, then using a circular cookie cutter, cut it into round biscuits. Repeat with the remaining dough; you need to make 48 biscuits.

5) Transfer the biscuits to two of the prepared sheet pans and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.

6) Bake the biscuits for 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

7) Meanwhile, wash the edible flowers and drain well. Trim the stems as close to the flowerheads as possible. Allow to dry, face down, for 15 minutes.

8) For the floral topping, transfer 24 of the biscuits onto the last prepared sheet tray and brush them with egg wash. Place an edible flower on top of each biscuit and brush the flower with the egg wash. Sprinkle with granulated sugar and bake at 180°C for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

9) To make the elderflower buttercream, cream the butter, milk, elderflower syrup and food colouring together. Sift the dry ingredients together, add to the butter mixture and mix well. Transfer to a piping bag with a large star nozzle.

10) To assemble the biscuits, pipe rosettes of butter cream onto the 24 plain biscuits. Top each one with a flower-topped biscuit and sandwich the two halves together. Sprinkle with the edible glitter.

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