INGREDIENTS:

Butter – room temperature / softened – ½ cup (105g)
Granulated Sugar – 1 ½ cups (270g)
Free Range Egg – large – 1
Stoneground Cake Flour – 1 ½ cups (195g)
Vanilla Extract – ½ teaspoon
Fresh Pecans – coarsely chopped – 1 cup (125g)
Dried Flowers – lavender, roses, marigolds, nasturtium – 1 cup
Lemon Zest – finely grated – 1 Lemon
Fresh Ginger – peeled / finely grated – 1 knob

METHOD:

1. Using an electric beater (paddle attachment), cream the room temperature butter, sugar and free range egg until light and fluffy.
2. While that is happening, coarsely chop up the pecans and set aside. If you have a whole vanilla pod, then chopping that up and adding it to the pecans is first prize.  Otherwise, keep the vanilla extract handy for when you mix in the pecans shortly.
3. Once the butter mix is light in colour and fluffy, sieve the flour gently into the mix and once it’s in, use a large spoon to fold it into the mix evenly.
4. Finely grate your knob of ginger and lemon and add to the dough.
5. Next, add the coarsely chopped pecans, vanilla and dried flowers.
6. Fold everything into the mix until all incorporated.
7. Now roll the dough into a type of cylinder shape tube, cover with plastic and place into the fridge for at least an hour or preferably overnight. The longer the better!
8. The reason why I roll it into a thick tube shape is so that when you are ready to cut and roll the biscuits, it’s easy to portion each one to size as it’s nice, firm and round already – trust me, you’ll see what I mean.
9. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and prepare 2 x baking sheets with cooking spray or butter and flour for a non-stick surface
10. Cut the dough into at least 1cm thick discs (you can go thicker if you want bigger cookies) and roll out quite thinly on top of a lightly floured surface to prevent sticking.
11. You may find that they crack up a little when rolling them out – don’t stress, just pat them together with your hands, they’ll hold their shape once in the oven.
12. Place onto prepared sheet and bake in your hot oven for about 14 – 16 minutes or until golden in colour.
13. Allow to cool completely and become crisp, then dip and devour.