So I seem to have been hit by a bit of a baking bug recently and thinking about my Pastry chef days. Either that or I have hit a time in my Life when I actually DO have a sweeter tooth than I thought! 
  Thing is as you know by now I only write what I feel is right, when it feels right and so on… And this does. So lets just go with the flow!

  You will begin to see soon a pattern forming with the lovely Herb, Lemon Verbena. I am besotted with it! I am very proud of my little bush of it gleaming away against all my other Herbs. I love the smell and taste that it has in both Sweet and Savoury dishes. Savoury being so far of the Herby Chicken Goujons recipe I developed last month. So, now turn for a sweet dish.

 Lemon Verbena Fruit Shortbread with Lavender Sugar:

Ingredients:
(Makes approximately 12-14 round biscuits)

–  115 g of Unsalted Butter cubed and softened
–  180 g Plain Flour Sifted (plus a little extra when rolling)
–  55 g of Caster Sugar
–  finely Zest Half of a lemon
–  1 Tbsp of Finely Chopped Lemon Verbena
–  25 g of Dried Raisins and Dried Blueberries
–  A small amount of Lavender Granulated Sugar for sprinkling on top, (I infuse my own Sugar)
*Note: If you don’t like Lavender infused sugar, just use normal Granulated Sugar.

Method:

–  Preheat Oven to 170c


–  Place Flour, Butter and Sugar into a mixing bowl and start to mix with fingertips to allow to crumble.

–  Once starting to form together add in the fruit, zest and lemon verbena.Mix together until it forms a dough such as like this:

–  Start to roll out the dough to flatten to about 1/2 cm thick. It will start to stick and crumble especially if it is warm in the Kitchen.

– Cut out your Biscuits. I used a 7cm cutter:

–  Lightly Grease your baking tray, place the shortbread on allowing to give space to expand a little when baking. Prick the Shortbread with a fork and sprinkle on the Lavender sugar.

– Pop into the Oven for approximately 12 minutes or until starting to ever so slightly brown at the edges.

– Allow to cool on a cooling rack before tasting, If you can resist!