Fruit feves part 4: yuzu
All of these Valrhona fruit and nut feves have been good, but I think that yuzu might be my favourite. They are so citrusy, in a way that seems like it should impossible to capture in chocolate. They seem actually juicy, sour and fresh. The other flavours are really good as well, and they do taste so much like each fresh fruit. The snozzberries really do taste like snozzberries.
This shortbread is fresh and light tasting, perfect for springtime with a cup of afternoon tea. I usually associate shortbread with Christmastime, so it always feels like a cozy, cold weather cookie. But the citrusy feves and glaze, and the bright, verdant pistachios make them more springy. I still think they would be a great addition to a Christmas cookie tin though.
I was thrilled to find yuzu juice to make the glaze, which is really good and adds another yuzu layer, making them extra yuzu-y. If you can’t find it, you could use lemon juice instead. I haven’t been able to find fresh yuzu in Victoria, but definitely use fresh if you can find it.
Check out the rest of the fruit feve series:
almond - quadruple almond and apricot cookies
raspberry - raspberry almond freeform florentines
strawberry - pb & j cookies
passion fruit - passion coco cream puffs
yuzu pistachio shortbread
Adapted from Seasons and Suppers
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbs slivered pistachios
3/4 cup yuzu feves, roughly chopped
Heat oven to 300° F. Prepare a 9” springform pan, or tart pan with a removable bottom with a circle of parchment paper on the bottom.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the butter and sugar together for 2-3 minutes on medium-high speed, or until very light and fluffy. Add vanilla and mix briefly.
On low speed, mix in flour and salt very briefly, until just incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Use a spatula to scrape the edges and bottom of the bowl. Add chopped yuzu chocolate and pistachios and gently fold them through the dough.
Press the dough into the prepared pan in an even, smooth layer. Slice wedges into the dough (I made 16 wedges). Bake for about 55 minutes, or until the edges are just golden. The cookies will still be quite light on top.
Let cookies cool in the tin for 5 minutes. While still hot, carefully remove the edge of the pan (run a paring knife around the edge to help it come away cleanly). Cut the cookies along the lines you already cut. They can be a bit crumbly at this stage so take care when cutting them. Allow them to cool completely to room temp on a wire cooling rack.
yuzu icing
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 tbsp yuzu juice
2 tbs slivered pistachios
Stir together yuzu juice and icing sugar. Working over a cooling rack, dip the top of each cookie into yuzu glaze. Let excess glaze drip back down into the bowl. Sprinkle with slivered pistachios (I put the pistachios just around the wide edge of the cookies, so that when they are assembled in a circle you get a sort of wreath effect). Let cookies dry on the cooling rack until the icing is set.