Millet Shortbread with Cardamom Sugar

Method

1. Butter a 20cm enamel plate, or cake tin, or otherwise ready a sheet of baking parchment.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and pinch of salt. Weigh in the plain flour and red millet flour, then stir with a spoon until it forms big crumbs which can be carefully pressed together into a dough. (A good trick for this is to bring all the crumbs together into a clean tea towel, gather all the corners, and then tightly wring the top, like forming a rudimentary sack — when you unwrap the fabric again, you’ll have a compressed ball of dough).
3. Working gently, roll your dough into a circle just smaller than your plate — about 1.5cm thick (thicker than pictured). Press this onto the prepared plate and, using your fingers to push and pinch, crimp round the edges as you might with a pie. Use a sharp knife to score across the top into triangle segments, then dot evenly with the prongs of a fork.
4. Preheat your oven to 150C, and place the prepared dough into the freezer to chill for 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, crack open the cardamom pods and bash up their seeds in a mortar and pestle. Add the remaining two tablespoons of sugar and bash again with the pestle, until the sugar is very fragrant with the cardamom. Set aside.
6. When the dough is chilled, remove from the freezer and place in the preheated oven. Bake for around an hour, until cooked through. Take it out of the oven and re-score along the segment lines while still soft (it will firm as it cools). After a few minutes, sprinkle over with cardamom sugar and leave to cool completely.
7. Shortbread triangles can be snapped off as desired, to eat with tea. For a more special dessert, serve with extra thick double cream.