Spiced Orange Shortbread {Vegan}
These spiced orange shortbread cookies are a good make head Christmas biscuits and also work as edible Christmas gifts
I don’t know about you but I am always a little bit rushed on Christmas day.
There is the fun rush. Getting breakfast into children so that they can go and play with their cousins, getting everything shipshape because someone is coming for drinks, hurrying from one party to another, etc.
Then there is the slightly more stressed kind of rush. Remembering that the main present for one cousin has to be got from a depot 5 miles away, going to the inevitable bunfight at the shops to get enough milk to last, washing up before the next round of dirty things and then washing up again.
So I decided this year to prepare one of the desserts early. So I did a whole month early. And the preparation was a pretty useful “it is raining, the children are bored and I can’t just chuck them into the garden” kind of job. So useful in two ways.
That is the beauty of this spiced orange shortbread recipe. You make the dough (kiddoes love helping with all the Christmas baking), eat about a quarter of the dough whilst you roll it and cut out the biscuits and then you freeze them. Job done.
So Christmas day, tea time. You need something (but not too much, still full from lunch and supper to look forward to). Do a cookie run – all the way to the kitchen. Chuck some of these in the oven. 12 mins later out come some lovely, warm, shortbread, smelling of oranges and mixed spice. Perfect (unless of course the dog jumps up and knocks over the baking tray as happened last year).
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Spiced Orange Shortbread
Ingredients
- 250 g (8.8oz) dairy free softened butter (or regular butter if not vegan)
- 100 g (3.5oz) caster sugar
- Finely grated zest of 3 oranges
- Juice of 1 orange
- 250 g (8.8oz) plain flour
- 125 g (4.4oz) rice flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
Instructions
- Add the butter and sugar to a large bowl and cream together using an electric hand mixer till the mixture is light and fluffy. Mix in the orange zest and juice. Then sift in the flours, salt and mixed spice and mix until you get a soft dough. If the dough is a little bit sticky then add in a tbsp or two of flour.
- Split the dough into two and shape each one into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1hr minimum.
- Preheat oven to fan assisted 150C / 170C / 325F / gas 3.
- Take the first bit of dough from the fridge, roll it out on a lightly floured surface till it is about 6mm thick and then cut into your desired shapes (I use a 6cm diameter cutter) and lay on a lined baking sheet. Quickly scoop up the excess of dough re shape roll out and cut again. Repeat with the second disc of dough. You can freeze some of the cut shortbread at this stage.
- Bake the shortbread for between 10-12 mins until they are lightly golden.
- Let the shortbread cool on the tray for about 10 mins before transferring it to a cooling rack to cool completely. Keep in an airtight container for a few days.
What is ground mixed spice? Can you say what the individual spices are? Thank You
Who doesn’t love shortbread? I love the added flavor of orange in yours!
These would look gorgeous and summery too with ice cream, or a fruit salad, lovely!
These are some beautiful shortbreads. Merry Christmas!
These look super yummy nad would make perfect Christmas gifts.
I love shortbread and always make a few batches at Christmas so will definitely give these a whirl.x
Pleased that you will be trying these Munchies and Munchkins.
These look so good. I love orange flavours at this time of year so these are perfect!
Thanks Ciara. Oranges are one of my fav things about this time of the year.
I love a bit of shortbread, it must be the most comforting biscuit there is!
I agree – I certainly tell that to myself
This sounds so good! I can’t get enough shortbread 🙂
welcome to my life Akaleistar
Yup, you’ve definitely made me want these for Christmas tea now!! We usually have posh cheese and biscuits, but some of this for dessert certainly wouldn’t go amiss. 🙂
No reason why you cant have posh cheese, biscuits and shortbread too.
I love the prepare-ahead-ness of this! What a great idea. Now I want to fill my freezer with them so I can bake fresh cookies at a moment’s notice 🙂
Go for it Helen.
Oh wow, I like the idea of it… it must taste divine.
I will have to try it.
It does agatapokutycka
It sounds like you have the big day well planned out for the little stressors and the big stressors, Bintu! These sound great and would go wonderful with a spicy drink. Now, I’m wanting some orange shortbread cookies! LOL…to the dog jumping up and knocking the tray over! 🙂
Yeap you cant quite get mad at the dog.
Nice one Bintu, I can just imagine what these smell like fresh from the oven. Mm Mmmm.
Janie x
Yeap – smell and taste good.
Lovely recipe Bintu and stunning photos. I am all for anything that can be prepped ahead of time.
I am all about easy over the xmas break
These cookies sound delightful Bintu. Packed full of festive flavour and I’m loving the fact the dough can be made in advance. Perfect.
😀
The last time I attempted to make shortbread, went horribly wrong and tasted really odd, not even sure why but the outside looked perfectly fine, in the middle it was a bit gooey x
Rachel can I convince you to try again with this recipe?
This is possibly one of the best shortbread recipes I have seen for a while and will definitely be trying it before I go away for Christmas
I hope you enjoy it.
Shortbread is my all time favourite biscuit, it’s so versatile. Getting organised well ahead as you’ve done is something I keep promising myself, but somehow just doesn’t seem to happen. The biscuits sound scrumptious and what could be more Christmassy than orange and spice.
Thing is I really like these so it is easy to do it.