Don't worry, they're delicious! Pareve vegan lemon olive oil shortbread

Pareve shortbread???? Vegan shortbread? Shortbread that showcases the unique, lovely, and delicate flavours of the Land of Israel? And hey, while we're dreaming, a fast, easy shortbread that comes together in a few fuss-free minutes?

Have I got a recipe for you!

This Lemon, Rosemary, and Olive Oil Shortbread recipe from Cookie and Kate combines just a few simple and unlikely ingredients, and the result is a great big sophisticated thumbs up.  

Let me say right up front that while I love lemon desserts, I am not a massive olive oil fan, and naturally shy away from using it in desserts, except for this amazing Pesach olive oil mousse, which I make, in which the chocolate almost totally masks any olive-oily flavour.  

So if you're not an olive oil fan

or don't think these flavours will go together well - think again!

The recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar (in the US, confectioners' sugar, in Canada, icing sugar). I like sweet stuff, but based on reviews, cut that to a single cup and it was fine.

I didn't have icing sugar on hand so ground up regular sugar in a blender. That worked fine.

But then I tried pulsing the sugar WITH the rosemary to grind it up and save a step, and that did NOT work fine. I think the oil in the rosemary made the sugar clump up. So I wound up picking out most of the rosemary, but the plus was that the sugar was already nicely rosemary scented/flavoured.

So - based on this experience - you'll have to chop the rosemary separately. OR, if you plan ahead, you can probably just put 2-3 sprigs of rosemary in a clean, dry jar with regular sugar a day or two ahead of time. Shake it up and leave it to sit. When you're ready to make the recipe, take out the rosemary, then blend the sugar into a fine powder.

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I strongly suggest following her advice and waiting exactly 20 minutes – no more, no less – before slicing these into squares or bars.
 
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You'll notice my shortbreads look a little on the dense side, with pronounced clumps. With all shortbread, you have to find a balance between pressing it into the pan too much and not pressing it enough. Also, when I make this again -- which I surely will! -- I think I'll use the food processor and pulse the dry stuff together with the olive oil so there won't be big clumps.

I'm not going to share the recipe, because I made it totally as is. You can find the original here:

Pareve Vegan Lemon Olive Oil Shortbread recipe from Cookie & Kate

After you try it, let me know what you think in the comments below!

Tzivia / צִיבְיָה

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