Vegan Cranberry Orange Shortbread
Vegan cranberry orange shortbread - these delicious slice-and-bake cookies are easy to make, rich, melt-in-the-mouth and so full of flavour. They are perfect for Christmas and can be made in advance and baked right from the freezer.
Servings 24 cookies
Ingredients
- 200 g (1 + ⅔ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 75 g (½ cup + 2 Tablespoons) cornflour (cornstarch)
- 185 g (¾ cup + 1 teaspoon) vegan block butter (NOT the spreadable kind. I use Naturli Vegan Block) slightly softened
- 100 g (½ cup) caster (superfine) sugar
- finely grated zest of 2 large oranges
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 100 g (3 ½ oz) dried cranberries chopped
Instructions
- Sift together the plain flour and cornflour (cornstarch)
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Whisk in the orange zest, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.
- Add the dry ingredients and stir in until all the flour is moistened and no lumps of butter remain.
- Stir through the chopped cranberries then use your hands to bring the dough together.
- Form the dough into a log about 5-7cm (2-2 ¾ in) thick - use your hands and roll it on a lightly floured surface to get it as even as possible.
- Wrap the log in baking parchment and refrigerate for 2 hours, and up to 3 days.
- Use a very sharp knife to slice the log into approx 8mm thick slices. They may crumble a bit due to the pieces of cranberry, if this happens just use your hands to press the dough back into a round. (If the dough has become too firm to slice, let it sit out at room temperature for about half an hour before slicing it).
- Place the cookie slices slightly spaced apart on a couple of parchment lined baking sheets (they will spread a little in the oven) and pop them in the freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4.
- Bake the cookies for about 15-20 minutes until firm and pale golden. The longer you bake them the more crisp they will be.
- Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cold store in an airtight container.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details, make ahead instructions and step-by-step photos.
- All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
- You need to chop the cranberries fairly finely, don't just add them whole otherwise they won't be evenly distributed throughout the dough.
- The dough can be a bit difficult to slice due to the pieces of cranberry. Use a very sharp knife and if any of the slices crumble you can simply use your fingers to press it back into a round.