Peppered shortbread and plum butter hearts

By Claudia Anton

Just in time for the season of romance, or just to express your affection in an edible way. These are little buttery delights where the shortbread is spiced up with a hint of black pepper and sea salt and filled with the most beautifully hued blood plum butter. 

Spicy, sweet, gorgeous and in perfect harmony – that sounds like a pretty good relationship. 

Kitchen tools needed

• 2 baking trays
• A cooling rack
• One strong piping bag
• Wilton 21 star nozzle (or equivalent)
• One piping bag adaptor
• 4cm heart shaped cookie cutter
• Cole and Mason London Red Gloss Pepper and Salt Mills

Makes approx. 30 complete biscuits

Prep and baking: 1.5 hours plus overnight resting time for the plum butter

Difficulty: Moderate (needs some piping skills and a firm grip)

Ingredients:

For the plum butter: 

• 500g blood plums - stones , blemishes and stems removed.
• Juice of half a lemon
• A cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 200g raw Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Pectin mixed with ½ tablespoon sugar 
  

For the peppered shortbread: 

• 240g cultured unsalted butter – at room temperature
• 50g pure icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• A good pinch of salt to taste (finely ground)
• ¼ tsp finely ground black pepper
• 250g plain flour
• 45g rice flour
  

Method

For the plum butter: 

1. Chop the plums into 8ths
2. Boil the plums, water, lemon juice and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan over gentle heat until broken down and soft. Stir regularly to prevent the fruit from catching.
3. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved, then bring to boil and cook for six minutes.
4. Add the pectin and boil for another 2 minutes, stirring all the time.
5. Cool, remove the cinnamon stick and blend until smooth.
6. Store covered in the fridge overnight to allow the butter to set. 
   

For the shortbread hearts: 

Preheat the oven to 160 deg C, fan forced.

1. Beat butter, icing sugar and vanilla until fluffy using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer.
2. Sift the flours and mix into the butter on low speed with the salt and black pepper until combined.
3. Divide the dough into two and place half into a piping bag fitted with the star nozzle and adaptor. 
   
4. Pipe out heart shapes onto baking trays with a gap in the centre. They only need a little spacing as spread is minimal. 
   
5. Gently roll the remaining dough/or pat it out to a thickness of approximately 4mm. It’s easier to roll a small portion at a time. Make sure the bench is well floured as the dough is very soft. 
   
6. Cut out an equal number of heart shapes to piped hearts and lift with a spatula onto the baking tray. 
   
7. Bake at 160 degrees C, fan forced, for 10 minutes or until just starting to colour. 
   
8. Allow to cool. 
   
9. When ready to serve, spread a little plum butter onto the flat side of the cut out hearts to form the base, and top with a piped heart biscuit. Extra jam can be blobbed into the centre if desired. 
   

Store any extra shortbreads in the fridge.

Tips:

This makes more plum butter than you need, but it is so delicious on fresh bread, scones, pancakes, in cake, on yoghurt… Keep it refrigerated and use within 2 weeks. 

Use a cloth or thick plastic piping bag as you need quite a bit of pressure to squeeze out the dough. 

Only piping a portion at a time makes it easier as the dough warms a little in your hands.

Don’t despair if the piping is a little wonky, go with it, practise or just pick it up and pop it back in the bag.