Lemon Shortcake | RECIPE

Oooh my first proper post on here, how exciting! I'm really into baking at the moment so for my first post I thought I would share with you a recipe I very recently tried out after inheriting a baking book from my great Auntie last week. The book was published in the 70's and I find these types of books a bit more fun and challenging, especially as a very amateur baker, as the instructions aren't as clear as many of the recipes I see online. I decided to go for one of the more simpler recipes to begin with, but also something that I knew I would love - lemon shortcake. 

Firstly the ingredients, you will need:

225g of flour (the book says plain flour, however I used self-raising as I didn't have enough plain flour and it still turned out ok)

75g of caster sugar

75g of butter

1 lemon

1 egg

A pinch of salt

Begin by greasing a round baking tin, approximately 20cm (8 inches) and pre-heating the oven to 190°C or 375°F/Gas 5 depending on your oven. 

Next take the lemon and grate the rind (the yellow, outer skin) off and onto a plate. Once you have done this cut the lemon in half and then squeeze the juice out of each half into a glass, making sure to remove any seeds that fall into the glass in the process. One lemon should produce about 2 tablespoons of juice.

Place the flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix together before stirring in the egg, the lemon rind, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and melted butter. To melt the butter I placed it in the microwave for a minute so it was soft enough to stir into the mixture easily. When stirring the mixture should start to combine quite quickly, so then you can take out the spoon and knead the now dough with your hands. 

Knead the dough together lightly and then shape it into a ball. When the dough is smooth it can be rolled out onto a floured surface, maintaining a circular shape to fit into the baking tin. 

When in the baking tray, prick the dough with a fork all over so that any steam can escape from the shortcake as it cooks. Also lightly sprinkle some caster sugar over the top of the dough before placing in the oven if you wish to have a sweeter shortcake. Overall this shortcake takes approximately 20 minutes to cook, when it's done the top should be a gold brown colour, however if you feel the top is colouring too quickly but it is not cooked inside, you can place a sheet of grease proof paper over the top of the baking tin to stop the top of the shortcake burning. To check the shortcake has cooked you can place a skewer into the middle of the tin, if it comes out clean the shortcake is ready. 

Leave the shortcake to cool in the baking tin. When it is cool you can cut a slice, make a cup of tea and enjoy! 

I hope you liked this recipe and  let me know if you give it a try!