It’s surprising the difference carob can make to a recipe, even in tiny quantities. A bit like vanilla or coffee, it adds a comforting warmth to the flavour of some traditional cakes and biscuits.
This simple recipe for vegan carob stem ginger shortbread is a good example. Stem ginger is often added to shortbread, but the carob makes this a bit different, both in its flavour and its colour, which is a hazelnutty shade of brown.
The texture is very much that of traditional crisp but firm shortbread, which results from a long baking time at a low temperature. The colour won’t change much so it can be tricky to judge when shortbread is ready, but you can always stick it back in the oven later if it’s not quite crisp enough. In fact, the Romans made biscuits by re-baking pieces of bread to make them crispy, so you could consider it an ancient tradition!
Although its origins were humble, shortbread rose to the heights of Mary, Queen of Scots’ court, and was (yet another) one of Queen Victoria’s favourite treats, although I doubt she ever tried it with carob, which is a shame as, by all accounts, she was partial to a good biscuit.
Carob Stem Ginger Shortbread…
Ingredients
- 60 g coconut oil
- 70 g vegan margarine
- 80 g caster sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 50 g preserved stem ginger, chopped fairly small
- 2 tsp carob powder
- 140 g plain white/unbleached flour
- 60 g cornflour (corn starch)
Method
- Set the oven to 150°C/300°F and line the base of a 7″ square or similar-sized tin.
- Soften the coconut a bit if it is not already at warm room temperature, then use a hand mixer to beat the oil, margarine, sugar and salt together until pale and fluffy.
- Stir in the chopped stem ginger followed by the sifted flour, carob and cornflour. Fold gently until combined.
- Lightly press the mixture into the tin – the back of a clean spoon should suffice for this job, but you could use a palette knife. It should be pretty flat but doesn’t need to be perfect. (You can prick the surface with a fork for a classic shortbread appearance but it’s not essential.)
- Bake for an hour or longer, depending on your oven (if you’ve used an 8″ tin, it may be ready in 50 minutes).
- Sprinkle with some more caster sugar, mark the pieces gently with a sharp knife, and leave the shortbread to cool completely before cutting through and removing from the tin.
- If you find you’ve taken it out too early and it is still soft when it cools, you can put the shortbread back in the oven at the same temperature to crisp up, even after you’ve cut it into pieces.
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