Rose petal & orange shortbread

England's in for a fight today, and I was wondering what should I cook for today's World Cup culinary challenge. My first thought was to make a batch of Welsh cakes with Cheddar and chives, then I suddenly realised the name kind of says it all: they are not English, and I don't want a wrath of my blog readers descending on me for mixing up the two entities. What then: Eton Mess or Chelsea buns? Shepherd's pie or bangers & mash? Jam roly-poly or a Victoria sandwich? What about some lovely shortbread? Now that for me is quintessentially English and quaint. Very ladylike. Unlike football.
My garden is beautiful right now, with the old fashioned roses cascading down on branches. So be it, I'll add some rose petals to the dough, and maybe the orange zest. While oranges are not native to England, they have been imported here for ages, think of the orange girls in Drury Lane or going even further in history, candied oranges at the court of Henry VIII.

Rose petal & orange shortbread
Ingredients:
1 orange, zest only
50g caster sugar
150g plain flour
100g butter, softened
2tsp finely chopped rose petals, dried

In a mixing bowl mix the orange zest with caster sugar and finely chopped rose petals (snip with scissors), add the flour and butter and start mixing, using your hands. It will first look like crumble, but keep working the dough until it binds together.
Press the dough into the base of a tart tin. Actually I couldn't find where I put my tart tin, so I just used a Pyrex dish lid, slightly sprayed with the oil spray. Using the back of a spoon, smooth the top.
Bake in the oven at 180C for 20 minutes until golden.
Take the tin out, and carefully cut into triangles, while still warm.

Let it cool in the tin, then take out of the tin.

It is lovely with fresh strawberries on top, or just sprinkled with a bit of icing sugar.

Chris from Cooking Around the World has challenged the foodies to take part in a culinary-football-themed game this month. Read all about the rules of the game in his linky Bloggers Around the World.

• Adding my recipe to Teatime Treats, hosted this month by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and co-hosted by Janie at The Hedgecombers.