Sakura Shortbread Recipe

This sakura shortbread recipe is super quick and easy, and a really cute and tasty way to celebrate spring.

Buttery and delicate, these sakura biscuits are based on the basic 3:2:1 flour:butter:sugar shortbread recipe. I use my favourite soluble sakura leaf powder from Nihon Ichiban to flavour these sakura cookies. And because the powder is uncoloured, I add a little bit of pink food colouring.

Gel or paste food colouring is the best kind in this case, as it won't water down the dough and change the texture.

I also decorated about half of my sakura shortbread biscuits with edible paint made with edible gold dust and vodka, but this is totally optional.

You can also watch me make these on YouTube:

Ready? Let's go.

(Makes about 23–25 biscuits.)

Ingredients:

160g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
80g icing sugar
Pink gel food colouring
Pinch of salt
240g plain flour
2 tbsp soluble sakura leaf powder
Extra flour, for dusting

To Decorate (Optional):

Edible gold lustre dust
Vodka

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a large baking tray with nonstick baking paper.

2. Cream the butter, icing sugar, a few drops of the food colouring and salt together in a large bowl until smooth.

3. Stir in half the flour and sakura leaf powder until well combined, then knead in the rest of the flour until you have a smooth, slightly crumbly dough.

4. Take about 2 tsp of dough and roll it into a ball. Roll in a little extra flour, flour your mould well, and press in the mould. Place on your lined baking sheet and repeat until all the dough is used up. Make sure there's about 2cm of space in between each biscuit on your tray in case they spread a bit.

5. Bake for 8–10 minutes, or until only just about starting to go golden around the edges. Leave to cool completely.

6. If you're painting your sakura biscuits, mix half a teaspoonful of the edible gold dust with a few drops of vodka to make a paint, and use a clean paintbrush to paint it on your biscuits.

Enjoy, and have fun.