Visitor’s book – Jocie’s hazlenut shortbreads

Jocie Chapman runs the beautiful Old Convent cafe and B&B in Borenore, which is just out of Orange. Established by Josephine Nuns in the 1890s, it really was an old convent and these days is one of the nicest places to have lunch or breakfast in our area. We popped in to see Jocie last week, and as we arrived she pulled these hazlenut shortbreads out of the oven. I think they might be the best biscuits I’ve ever eaten.

And better still, the recipe, (here below) is easy peasy. Jocie says it’s the quality of the hazlenuts that really make the difference and uses Fourjay Farms roasted hazlenuts, (here’s a post about our visit to Fourjay a couple of months ago during the hazlnut harvest).

By coincidence our friend Pip also happened to be visiting Jocie on the day we visited. She took the lovely pictures of Alice and Tom shown above. If you are in our area and ever thinking about having some family portraits taken, Pip is your lady.

Hazlenut shortbread
250g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 scraped vanilla bean
200g ground hazlenuts (roasted)
2 cups plain flour
Icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 180C and line a tray with baking paper. Cream butter, vanilla and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in the nuts and flour, combine well, roll into little balls and then form into crescent shapes. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Dust with icing sugar.