PARMESAN & POPPY SEED SHORTBREAD
The Simple Things recently commissioned me to create and photograph a couple of cocktail snack recipes: one savoury and one sweet. This is the savoury one for Parmesan & Poppy Seed Shortbread along with a few photographs from the cutting room floor.
The feature, in the June issue of the magazine, has five tempting summer cocktail recipes - perfect for a summer gathering - so go and grab yourself a copy while it's still on the shelves. By the way, the beautiful terracotta ceramics in this shoot are by Reiko Kaneko.
Parmesan & Poppy Seed Shortbread
Makes approx 24 biscuits
150g plain flour
75g finely grated parmesan
100g unsalted butter, soft
1 egg yolk
2-3 tsp poppy seeds
Place all the ingredients together in a large bowl and mix with a wooden spoon, electric mixer or food processor, until a dough forms.
Turn the dough out onto a surface and knead for about 30 seconds until smooth. Flatten the dough down a little to form a disc shape, wrap with cling film and place in the fridge for 45 minutes.
Remove the dough from the fridge and allow to soften a little before rolling. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/350F.
Place a sheet of baking paper on a work surface, put the dough on top and cover with another sheet. Roll out the dough to about 1cm thick and remove the top sheet.
Using a 5cm circular biscuit cutter, stamp out as many biscuits from the dough as you can, and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, when they should be just tinged gold at the edges.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Store in an airtight container.