I love making shortbread because it’s so easy and yummy. Also, it’s ideal for those who have dairy, nut or egg allergy – as it can also be made with dairy-free spread and needs no eggs! The recipe is really easy to remember too – you’ll need one part sugar, two parts butter and three parts flour.  That’s all. Then you can add some flavouring such as grated lemon zest, orange zest or cinnamon, ginger powder or vanilla paste.  I made these lemon shortbread cookies for Easter.

You’ll need:

• 150g flour
• 100g soft butter or dairy-free spread, diced
• 50g sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon

How to make shortbread:

1. Add the flour and butter in a bowl and rub them together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add the sugar and lemon zest, then combine everything into a dough.
3. Make a ball shape and wrap it with clingfilm. Chill until needed or until the oven warms up.
4. Turn the oven on, setting the temperature to 170°C.
5. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a large sheet of baking paper to 5mm thickness.
6. Using cookie cutters, cut out cookies (I used Easter motifs – such as bunny, butterfly, egg  and heart)
7. Place the cookies on a baking sheet, lined with baking paper.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until just golden.
9. Ask an adult to take the baking sheet out of the oven.
10. Let it cool for a few minutes then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Decoration:

You can dust the cookies with icing sugar or drizzle some melted chocolate or lemon icing over them (this is very easy to make –  mix 1 Tbsp lemon juice with enough icing sugar to make a creamy paste) then put them back to the rack to set.

Tips

• These cookies make nice presents for Easter, Christmas or Mother’s Day too!
• These shortbread cookies are ideal for kids parties too, as they have little sugar and no nuts or dairy! Perfect!