Recipe of the month

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Tim was a finalist in BBC1’s MasterChef 2010. He impressed the judges with his elegant and luxurious food. In particular his desserts received high praise, being described as amongst the best seen on the series.

Tim’s love of food was evident at a young age. He taught himself to cook but was influenced by his parent’s enthusiasm for food and his mum’s good housekeeping cookbook for children! He enjoys the challenge of complex patisserie and developing new cakes and desserts.

Following MasterChef Tim left his medical career behind and moved into a full time career in food. He set up his own successful business "Macarons and More". Tim makes and sells his famous macarons and other cakes to shops, delicatessens and restaurants in East Anglia. His online patisserie went live this Autumn.

Cardamom, Chocolate and Orange Shortbread

Ingredients

¾ cup Icing Sugar
210g Butter

1tsp orange zest
½ tsp orange water
½ tsp vanilla extract

2 cups flour
¼ tsp salt
Crushed seeds from 6 cardamom pods
1/4cup cocoa

Method

Beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth. Add the orange zest and orange water and vanilla to the butter and sugar mix. Sift the plain flour and add that with salt, cocoa and cardamom to the butter and sugar. Beat this mix until you have a smooth dough.

Roll out the dough between two sheets of cling film until its 0.5cm thick. Refrigerate the rolled out dough until firm.

Cut the dough out into rounds and bake in the oven at 170C for 9mins.

Leave to cool on baking rack