Pecan & white chocolate shortbread for tea.

There may have been a few things going on recently that have restricted the amount of time that I can devote to this blog, but what they haven’t done is restrict the amount of time that I get to spend in the kitchen. I’ve mentioned before that my partner and I are currently nursing her mother back to health after an illness and this has meant that for the last couple of months there have been three mouths to feed in the house, rather than the normal two. As my partner currently works full time three days a week it means that I’m looking after most of the cooking as well as the baking. I’m relishing the opportunities this gives me to delve into my cookbook collection and to try out new things. I did initially find it a little restrictive, as there are certain things that our invalid can’t have, but we’re working our way around that. Last week I got to make pizza’s for the first time and they were a great success. The beauty of that sort of dish is that the topping can be varied from plate to plate to take into account health requirements and how much heat or spice people prefer. Something tells me they might become a regular.

Although we do have to be a bit careful about the sugar contents I am finding that a sweet treat is always appreciated and I try to have something to hand. This morning I realised that we hadn’t got anything for this evening and after a quick scout of the pantry I decided on a batch of pecan and white chocolate shortbreads. When I’ve made these before it’s been with pistachios but we were out of those and pecans are a more that adequate alternative. To be honest these would probably work with just about any nuts that you might have available in your cupboards.

I’ve listed the ingredients to match the batch of nine that I made. Just amend accordingly if you want to make more.

• 50g pecans
• 100g unsalted butter
• 50g caster sugar
• 180g plain flour
• 20g cornflour
• 50g white chocolate, roughly chopped.

• Preheat the oven to gas mark 3. Line a baking tray with parchment*
• Roughly chop the pecans and toast them in a hot pan for a couple of minutes.
• Rub the softened butter, sugar, flour and cornflour together. When the ingredients come together like breadcrumbs, add the toasted pecans and chopped chocolate. Continue to work the mixture together until it forms a dough.
• Take tablespoon size pieces of the dough and mould them into balls. Press the balls of dough between your hands to form round shortbreads and place them on the tray with space between each one. Don’t worry if they’re not perfect rounds. These shortbreads are meant to look rustic.
• When the tray is full place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
• Remove the tray and allow the shortbreads to cool completely on the tray before you move them. This is important as they will be very crumbly when they first come out but will firm up as they cool.

* Rather than parchment you can use a baking mat .Someone bought me one for Christmas and if you’re a regular baker I thoroughly recommend them.