Shortbread sticks
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"These shortbread sticks are a perfect gift idea. You can make them bougie by tying a small ribbon on each of them and placing them in a box. They’re pretty to look at and delicious, too.” – Lorraine Maharaj
Ingredients
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- 180 g butter, softened
- 50 g icing sugar
- 1 t vanilla essence
- 50 g cornflour
- 240 g cake flour
- For decorating:
- 60 g milk chocolate, melted
- 3 T chopped peanuts
- 120 g white chocolate
- 3 T chopped pistachios
- edible gold leaf
- a very small pinch of cardamom
- 1 drop rose essence
- pink food colouring
- small pesticide-free rose petals
Method
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1. Beat the butter and icing sugar until creamy and well combined. Add the vanilla essence and mix well. Mix in the cornflour. Gradually add the flour and mix to form a soft pliable dough. Chill the dough for 30 minutes until ice cold.
2. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Divide the dough into two pieces, for easy rolling. Roll out the dough and cut into a square about 11 cm in length and about 1 mm in thickness. Cut the dough into elongated stick-like shapes, about 1 cm wide.
3. Place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 15–20 minutes, or until the edges are slightly brown.
4. Allow to cool on a cooling rack. Decorate a third each each (about 12) of the shortbread with different flavours.
5. To make chocolate-and-peanut shortbread, melt the milk chocolate. Dip one end of the shortbread, about a third, into the chocolate and sprinkle over the nuts. Allow to dry on baking paper. You can refrigerate them for 5 minutes to set the chocolate.
6. To make white chocolate-and-pistachio shortbread, melt half the white chocolate and dip the shortbread into the chocolate. Sprinkle over the pistachios and add some gold leaf.
7. To make cardamom-and rose-shortbread, mix the cardamom, rose essence and a tiny drop of food colouring into the remaining white chocolate. Dip the shortbread into the chocolate. Decorate with the rose petals.
Cook's note: Place the shortbread on a baking sheet lined with baking paper after decorating and pop into the fridge to set.
For the cardamom-and-rose shortbread, you need a tiny pinch of cardamom and a tiny drop of rose essence. The rose essence can be very overpowering so be careful not to add too much.
For more cost-effective shortbread, stick to one flavour!
Find more Diwali recipes here.
Photographs: Jan Ras
Production: Khanya Mzongwana
Food assistant: Tahila Pillay
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