Passionfruit Shortbread Cookies

It was a combination of poverty, famine and the prospect of gold that drew thousands of Scottish immigrants to Australian shores from the 1820s onwards. Migration peaked in 1862 with a majority Scots settling in Victoria and later in the South Island provinces of New Zealand such as Otago and Southland.

With the Scottish came new traditions, language, religion and trades. They also introduced many recipes which have become a distinct part of Australian and New Zealand food heritage.

Some of these foods include scones, porridge, cottage pie and shortbread biscuits, to name just a few.

Shortbread biscuits, or “cookies” as they are known in North America, are one of the most popular treats in Australia next to the iconic Tim Tam chocolate biscuits. Both are manufactured by food company Arnotts, an icon in itself having 140 years of biscuit-making experience.

In 1865 the Arnotts' empire began as a small bakery run by a Scott, William Arnott, in Newcastle, just north of Sydney. The bakery supplied local townspeople and ships with bread, cakes, pies and, of course, biscuits.

Some of the most popular items then and still today are the “plain biscuits” -- shortbread-type cookies. Arnotts sells four brands of shortbread that go by the names of “Farm House Shortbread,” “Glengarry Original,” “Arno Shortbread,” and the most popular, with Australians eating 180 million of them a year, the famous “Scotch Finger.”

This brings me to my recipe for passionfruit shortbread cookies. I've used a basic shortbread base which means that I've gone a little easier on butter than other shortbread recipes. The icing is possibly the easiest I've ever made. It simply involves stirring together passionfruit pulp with icing sugar until it forms a paste – and that's it!

Photo: © S. Wongkaew (2008) licensed to About.com, Inc