
Chocolate & Orange Shortbread
Chocolate orange is one of the few combinations I like (when adding things to chocolate) – I don’t like any distraction from the taste of the chocolate, for example mint chocolate. What an awful thing to eat, I get all the calories of the chocolate yet the taste of mint.
I was a little skeptical I would taste the orange from just the orange rind but I managed to stop myself ruining the recipe by adding the juice.
I didn’t have orange so I used a tangerine, same thing. I also reduced the sugar to 30g instead of 50g. The end result was a not too sweet and crumbly ‘biscuit’ – perfect 🙂
I actually found some dark chocolate in the end, hidden in my mum’s cupboards, I wonder how long it will take her to notice that a chunk of it is gone!
- 150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 200g plain flour
- 50g caster sugar, plus extra to sprinkle
- 1 orange
- 50g quality dark chocolate, 70%
- Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5.
- Grease a 20cm square baking tin and line with greaseproof paper.
- In a bowl, mix together the butter, flour, sugar and the finely grated zest of half the orange by rubbing the mixture between your thumbs and fingertips.
- Squash and pat into dough – don’t knead it – then push into the lined tin in a 1cm-thick layer. Prick all over with a fork, then bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly golden.
- Remove, sprinkle over a little extra sugar while it’s still warm, then leave to cool.
- Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, then remove.
- Cut the shortbread into 12 finger portions, then transfer to a wire cooling rack. Drizzle with the chocolate, then finely grate over the remaining orange zest.

