THE DAIRY KITCHEN
Spiced Shortbread Trees
By THE DAIRY KITCHEN
Makes
2
Difficulty
Medium
Preparation
20 MINS
Cooking
15 MINS
These spiced Christmas trees are sandwiched between the most delicious orange butter, the perfect way to get in the festive spirit.
Ingredients
250g butter, softened1 cup caster sugar
2 cups plain flour
1 cup rice flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Orange Butter Filling
125g butter, extra, softened1/2 cup icing sugar mixture
1 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
icing sugar, extra, for serving
Method
- Beat the butter and sugar together with electric beaters until creamy and pale. Sift in the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until it comes together. Turn out onto a floured surface and lightly knead into a ball. Split the dough into two balls.
- Roll each ball of dough out between two pieces of baking paper and cut into different size star shapes. Ensuring that you have large ones for the base, mid sized for the middle and small ones for the top of the tree. Continue rolling and cutting until all of the mixture has been made into stars.
- Using a spatula, carefully place stars onto a lined oven tray and bake at 160°C for 12-15 minutes until a light golden colour. Cool on a wire rack.
Filling:
- Beat the butter and sugar with electric beaters until creamy. Fold in the orange rind and chill until required.
- Spread a small amount of the butter filling between the cooled shortbread stars, starting with the larger ones, and continue to build up using the smaller stars to form a tree. Dust heavily with icing sugar and serve. Sandwich any remaining stars together with filling.
