Okay, I’ve got one last blood orange inspired recipe for you, before I move onto my ‘healthy’ inspired dessert recipes for ‘SWEET SEPTEMBER’. This recipe was inspired by the wonderful Maureen from ‘The Cheese Project’. You can find Maureen and her delicious cheeses at the Southside Farmers Markets.

Now I picked up Maureen’s ‘Fresh White Curd’, but she actually already has a delicious orange flavoured curd {perfect if you just want to recreate this simple dessert with her orange curd and store-bought shortbread}. I picked up the plain fresh white curd so that I could play around with flavour combinations.

To flavour 100 grams of curd, I combined 1/4 cup of blood orange juice with 1 tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of the blood orange zest. I popped the juice, sugar and zest into a small saucepan and simmered it under the sugar had dissolved and the juice had thickened slightly – then I folded the cooled mixture through the curd, of course, this is a way of doing things manually, but sometimes I also like to use my Hurom cold press juicer to make my juice, it definitely tastes better!

Perfect served upon this simple little gluten free macadamia shortbread recipe that I have for you today.

GLUTEN FREE MACADAMIA SHORTBREAD

Butter, melted, to grease

250g of butter, room temperature

1/2 cup of caster sugar

2 cups of gluten-free plain flour, sifted

1/2 cup of rice flour, sifted

1/4 cup of crushed macadamias

1 tablespoon gluten-free icing sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 150C. Brush 2 baking trays with melted butter to grease.

Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Gradually add the combined flour, beating on low speed until almost combined. Use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth.

Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Use your hands to shape 1 portion of dough into an 18cm-diameter disc. Transfer to 1 of the prepared trays. Use a flat-bladed knife to smooth the surface. At this stage, you can either pinch the edges to create a fluted edge and use a small sharp knife to score the disc into 8 wedges or you can use a scone cutter to create round shapes. Use a fork to prick the dough all over. Repeat with the remaining dough to make a second disc.

Bake the shortbread in oven, swapping the trays halfway through cooking, for 40 minutes or until light golden. Set aside on the trays for 10 minutes to cool before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into fingers to serve and dust with gluten-free icing sugar.

What is your favourite way to enjoy blood oranges? Have you shopped at the Southside Farmers Market? Have you tried Maureen’s {from the cheese project} cheeses? Let me know if you try out this recipe!