CookEat Recipe

Elderflower Cornmeal Biscuits

Thin round cornmeal biscuits with dried culinary elderflowers, two yolks and fine fork markings.

Method

Steps

  1. Step 1

    Gather the ingredients: 200 g fine yellow cornmeal, plus a little for rolling; 105 g butter: 100 g for the dough and 5 g for the tray; 80 g icing sugar; 10 g dried food-grade elderflowers, specifically Sambucus nigra, sold for cooking; 2 egg yolks; A little water, only if needed to soften the dough.

  2. Step 2

    Use packaged culinary dried elderflowers identified as Sambucus nigra. Pick through them and remove any green stalk fragments; use the flowers only, with no leaves, stems or berries. Do not substitute unidentified garden flowers or medicinal preparations.

  3. Step 3

    Mix the fine cornmeal, icing sugar and dried flowers. Work in the 100 g softened dough butter and two yolks with a blunt knife, then bring together gently by hand. If too stiff, add water a teaspoon at a time, only until the dough will roll without breaking apart. Chill for about 20 minutes if it becomes too soft.

  4. Step 4

    Grease a metal tray with the remaining 5 g butter and heat the oven to 170°C. Roll the dough about 3 mm thick on a lightly cornmeal-dusted surface or between baking-paper sheets. Cut into small discs about 6.4 cm across and move carefully to the tray; reroll scraps gently. Make fine shallow marks on the tops with fork tips, or press lightly against the patterned face of a clean flat grater. Bake in batches if necessary, sharing the tray butter between batches and keeping waiting dough refrigerated.

  5. Step 5

    Bake for about 12–18 minutes, until lightly golden at the edges and fully cooked through. Do not taste the raw dough or leave a damp raw centre. Cool on the tray for about 10 minutes, then transfer carefully to a rack to cool completely. Expect about 35–45 thin biscuits; the stated portion count uses 40. No final sugar dusting or flower garnish is added.

Cooked it? Rate it.

Cooked 0 times

Not rated yet

Sign in to participate