Coconut Shortbread.

I'm having a bit of a coconut thing. Forgive me, I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, in fact I think of it as something that is quite divisive, but I love it's chalky texture and mellow taste and I think it's the time of year that is meaning it's making more of a appearance in my kitchen than is regular.

You see, it's dark by 9 o clock now, and it's time to plant bulbs and people start actually knowing how far away (or not) Christmas is. And while it a most beautiful day up here on the east coast of Scotland and I am in fact sitting under a layer of factor 15, I just know what is round the corner and how much I don't want it to be.

I therefore must be subconsciously filling my kitchen with summer for as long as possible before it gets to be allllllll about apples and cinnamon and not much else. And there is not much that feels more summery and holidayish than roasty toasty coconut...to me anyway. I mean...hellooooo palm trees.

So I'm sorry if it's not one of your faves...but if someone offers you one of these don't immediately turn it down, because the taste is not too in your face coconutty and the texture is really lovely and crisp. Aaaaand I promise that for the time being I only have one more coconut recipe left for you for now...you didn't think I was finished yet did you...but after that I'm done I promise....besides, I've run out of the good stuff. With Love and Cake. 

Coconut Shortbread.

adapted from the very pretty Eat Me!

A few notes:

• I think these are best cooked until actually turning quite golden around the edges rather that keeping them snow white as you would traditional shortbread...it makes them extra crispy and they look more rustic and homey that way.
• As usual, I did the food processor thing...and as usual if you can't or don't fancy dragging it out the cupboard, beat the butter and sugar with an electric hand whisk or wooden spoon. Then stir in the rest of the ingredients with a metal spoon before bringing it together gently with your hands.
• Even with using 2 baking sheets I'm pretty sure you'll still have to bake in several batches...just a heads up.

Makes about 25 big biscuits

You will need

2 x baking sheets, greased

325g cold butter

pinch salt

150g icing sugar

75g ground almonds

75g desiccated coconut

325g flour

4-6 tbsp water

• Preheat the oven to 160˚c.
• Add the butter, salt and icing sugar to the bowl of your food processor and whizz to combine.
• Pulse in the almonds, coconut and flour followed by the water, 1 tbsp at a time until the mix starts to clump together and form a dough.
• Tip out onto a large square of clingfilm and form into a disc. Wrap in the clingfilm and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
• Roll out the dough to about the thickness of a pound coin and cut out biscuits with whatever shape you fancy really...just make sure it's about 15 cm across.
• Transfer the shapes to your baking sheets, gather up the rest of the dough and repeat the rolling and the cutting until it's all used up.
• Bake for about 15 minutes, checking and rotating around the oven at the halfway point.
• When they're going golden around the edges remove from the oven and leave to firm up for 10 minutes or so before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.