Kids in the Kitchen: Ginger Shortbread

We've made shortbread before, and we've made gingerbread before, but this time thanks to an idea by D, we decided to make ginger shortbread.

Whereas Miss T usually likes to pull a chair over to the kitchen worktop for cooking, we've had to change the way we do things whilst her foot is poorly so it was cooking at the table this time. In terms of a very quick update about Miss T, we have an MRI booked for this week (for both legs as her right toe is also swollen in addition to her left foot which has been swollen since end of last year and then last week her right knee ballooned one evening and has also stayed swollen so I'm really glad I asked them to do the MRI on both legs). We are also awaiting Great Ormond Street appointment.

Despite the doctors thinking it could be Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), none of the tests so far had been showing this. This week she got urgently called into hospital when her knee swelled and the blood tests taken that day DO seem to show inflammatory markers raised.

Anyway, back to the baking... She rolled out the shortbread between sheets of baking paper. Then cut shapes. These got baked in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 8-10 minutes on a baking tray lined with baking paper. These will look slightly darker than normal shortbread because of the ginger in them.

So here's the recipe...

Ingredients:
175g plain flour
110g butter (at room temp)
50g caster sugar
Ground ginger to taste (around a teaspoon or two)
Squeeze of Lurpak cook's range cooking liquid to help bring the shortbread together into a dough.

Method:
1. Rub together the flour, butter and sugar to resemble breadcrumbs. Then add a squeeze of the Lurpak cook's range cooking liquid to help form a dough. I used to make the mistake of adding water if my shortbread dough was too dry but this works miles better helping to keep the shortbread 'short' and very yummy.

2. Roll out between two sheets of baking paper and then cut out the desired shapes.

3. Place on baking paper and bake in preheated oven at 180C for 8-10 minutes. I even dipped some of them into melted chocolate afterwards and that tasted great too.

These really did turn out to be really crumbly light shortbread biscuits as we handled the dough as little as possible. Ideally we should probably have chilled the dough for 20-30 minutes before rolling out or chilled the rolled out dough before cutting shapes but we didn't and it turned out fine.

If you like ginger then you will find these incredibly moreish so be warned! I'm so glad D came up with the idea of making ginger shortbread - it really was a fantastic idea.