A Simple Recipe For Shortbread Biscuits With Edible Flowers

Ever wondered what to do with edible flowers? I made some edible flower shortbread a few year’s ago and as spring is finally here, and the garden is coming to life, I thought I’d share the recipe again!

Which Flowers Are Edible?

There are so many flowers that are edible. More than you’d probably think!

I’ve written a list of edible flowers that I regularly use.

We have pansies, primulas and a flowering currant bush all in bloom, in our garden, at the moment; all of which are edible and make for really pretty decorations on biscuits.

Edible Flowers For Baking

There are so many lovely edible flower edible flower recipes on the internet. I’ve been bookmarking them for years and have created a whole board over on my Pinterest account.

If you don’t have the privilege of a garden, there are lots of wild flowers that are good for foraging and eating!

Dandelions, daisies, mallow and yarrow can all be eaten, and look so pretty.

There are so many uses for edible flowers too. Use them as garnishes on soups and savoury dishes; or add them to salads.

Or you can even make flower butter cookies like these.

How to Make Edible Flower Shortbread

You will need:

For the shortbread biscuits:
125g butter
55g caster sugar
180g plain flour

Method: — Preheat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.

1. Beat the sugar and butter together, until fluffy and pale. Then mix in the sieved flour, to create a smooth paste.

2. Roll the mixture into a ball, cover then leave in the fridge to cool. 20 minutes is usually long enough.

3. Roll out the ball of dough on a work-surface. Lightly flour the surface first to avoid it sticking. Your rolled dough needs to be more than 5mm thick — mine usually tend to be just less than a 1cm.

4. Cut shapes from the dough, with the cutter of your choice. Then place onto a baking tray. Lave a little gap between because they do tend to spread.

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes in the pre-heated oven (or until the biscuits are a pale golden-brown colour).

6. Pop them on a wire rack to cool.

Edible Flower Decorations

Next for the icing and edible flower decorations!

I daresay you could make a lovely job, if you had the time or inclination. You could line and flood the biscuits, in a similar way to the gingerbread biscuits I make. But to be honest, with these, I never bother.

Dripping the icing over, in a fairly haphazard way, is fine.

The flowers are the star of the show after all. Nobody will be looking at your icing!

For the edible flower decorations:
1 egg white
icing sugar
edible flowers

Method:

1. Beat the white of an egg to loosen it up a little, then add enough icing sugar to make your icing.

I haven’t given quantities for this. I like my icing fairly runny for these biscuits but if you want a stiffer icing, add more icing sugar.

Just make sure — no matter how much you use — that you sieve it! No-one likes lumpy icing.

2. Place your baking tray over a sheet of baking parchment.

The icing will drip off and onto the worktops otherwise and you’ll end up in a mess. I’m saying this from experience!

3. Then simply spoon the icing mixture over your biscuits. And pop on the flowers! You can brush more of the icing mixture onto the flowers, with a little artist’s paintbrush, to ensure that they get a good covering.

And you can also sprinkle a little dry icing sugar over the top of the butter cookies to give a bit more texture.

It really is that simple.

Pretty Tasty

Not only are they tasty, but these shortbread biscuits are so pretty.

I don’t think it matters if the icing isn’t perfect either — the flowers do a really good job of making them look really special.

All you need to do next is let them to harden off and set.

If you can wait that long!

One thing I’ve learnt over the years is, these biscuits don’t tend to stay in the tin for very long.

Better be quick, before they’re all gone!

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