Elderflower and White Chocolate Shortbread

When you’ve gone to the effort of making elderflower sugar it is paramount that you make the most of it in ever varying and interesting ways. I thought I’d run out of sugar much sooner than I have; indeed I still have around 500g left. The sugar itself has an incredible aroma and every time you open the lid it smells of hedgerows. The little elderflower cakes I made were lovely but I wanted something a little more biscuit orientated. Not only does shortbread fill this requirement it’s also much easier to take to work; no icing to melt/squash before lunchtime.

You will need:

200g plain flour

50g elderflower sugar
150g butter, at room temperature
50g white chocolate, chopped

Beat the butter and elderflower sugar together until creamy and then mix in the flour and white chocolate. My silicone cake tin happens to be the perfect size to cook this amount of shortbread but you could roll it out and cut out biscuits if you wanted to or put it in one of those proper shortbread tins. I wonder if you can get shortbread tins with an elderflower pattern.

Press the shortbread down into the tin and prick all over with a fork or put the biscuits onto a greased baking sheet. Put the shortbread into the oven for 45 minutes at 160C. If you make biscuits they won't need as long. This is the part of baking that I don't like; the waiting game. The house fills with glorious smells and all you can do is lick the air. When you take the shortbread out of the oven mark it into eight or twelve pieces and then leave to cool.

I loved this shortbread; buttery and crunchy as expected but with exceptionally subtle elderflower and indulgent white chocolate. I found that the elderflower was a little overpowered when eating but afterwards when the enjoyment of eating the warm shortbread is over you get a little floral reminder on your breath.

I have a few more ideas for how to use the rest of my elderflower sugar and am enjoying that it smells of summer every time I use it. I also like how having the elderflower sugar, like an ever present jar of inspiration, has meant I have baked more in the last few weeks than ever before.