Ask a chef: Espresso Garden Cafe lemon shortcake

Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Photo by Peter McIntosh.

Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.

 

Espresso Garden Cafe lemon shortcake

Base and topping

2 cups self-raising flour,sifted
2 cups plain flour, sifted
2 cups caster sugar
200g cold butter
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4-6 Tbsp milk

Lemon curd filling

165g butter, cubed
410g sugar
5 beaten eggs
5 lemons, juice and zest

 

Method

Mix the sifted flours and sugar in a bowl.

Grate in the cold butter and rub it in until the mixture looks like rolled oatsMake a well in the centre and add the lightly beaten egg.

Add just enough milk so the particles will stick together when pressed to make a dough.

Press half over bottom of tin.

Filling

Place all ingredients in a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water, keep stirring periodically until curd coats back of spoon. When curd cools add one cup of frozen blueberries and combine.

Spread lemon curd mix over the base and then sprinkle remaining base mix over the top.

Bake for 35-45 minutes at 180degC until the middle is as firm as the edges.

 


Recipe requested by Elizabeth Purdie of Macandrew Bay

Recipe courtesy of Shelly Mcintosh and Callan Lloyd.

 If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz , including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.


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