Bakewell thumbprint biscuits

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since I’ve been blogging it’s that good recipes can turn up anywhere; a particularly good source being supermarket free magazines.  This one is from the Co-Op’s magazine and combines two of my favourite things – biscuits and bakewells.  Sadly, I no longer live near a Co-Op but my mother in law does, and diligently picks up the new magazine for me whenever it’s available – thanks Dot!

We all probably made thumbprint biscuits as children; they must be up there with fairy cakes and rock buns as the ideal ‘starter’ bake for children.  But what I liked about this recipe was that it reinvented the familiar biscuit and introduced almonds and white icing to create a bakewell hybrid.  It really is a winning combination.

The recipe makes a lot of biscuits.  A lot.  The recipe said it would make 40, and I got 26 (this isn’t bad for me – normally when a recipe says 40 I get about 12!). This is very handy as it is a strong individual who will stop at one!

The lemon zest in the biscuit and the lemon juice in the white icing is quite strong; if you want the almond and jam to be more dominant I would recommend maybe using the zest in the biscuit and making the icing up with water.

Ingredients

For the biscuits:
175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g caster sugar
1 lemon’s zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
150g ground almonds
150g self raising flour
approx ½ a jar of raspberry jam

For the icing:
80g icing sugar
1 lemon’s juice
Handful of toasted flaked almonds

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan oven 160C/350F/Gas mark 4.

Line two (or four if you have them, otherwise you can just rotate the baking trays and use them twice) baking sheets with baking paper or non stick foil.

Beat together the butter, sugar, zest and vanilla until light and whippy; you will notice the mix turning pale.

Add the egg and beat well.

Add the ground almonds and self raising flour and stir until just mixed.

Take a heaped teaspoon of the mix and roll into a ball.

Place on the baking sheet.

Repeat until the tray is full – they do spread while baking so aim for a maximum of 8 per baking sheet (depending on the size of your sheet.)

Push your thumb into each ball to form a well.

Spoon ½ teaspoon of jam into each well.

Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes until golden and nicely spread. I found mine needed longer – about 16-18 minutes, but it’s good to check after 10 minutes if only to rotate the trays for an even bake.

Repeat the process until all your biscuit dough is used up.

Leave to cool.

Now make the icing: mix together the icing sugar with just enough lemon juice (you won’t need it all) until you have a thick but runny icing.

Drizzle across the top of the cooled biscuits.

Scatter over the flaked almonds.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Mint chocolate biscuits

Long-time readers of my site will remember the anti-mint sentiments included in my TenCommandments.  My feelings to mint can be summed up quite simply – I hate it with a passion, particularly when a sprig finds its way onto my dessert plate for no good reason.  NB.  There is never a good reason. 

There are two exceptions I will happily cite: mint sweets, and mint with chocolate.  It has NO place in anything else – particularly savoury foods.  Bleugh….lamb and mint - whoever thought that was a good idea?  Mad people and mint farmers, that’s who.

Mint tea???  No!  I have tried it on various occasions and never got past two sips before wishing I just had some normal PG Tips in my cup.  The word ‘tea’ brings so much excitement into my life but there’s always such sadness and disappointment when it’s paired with ‘mint’.

This recipe appealed to me because I have a fondness for Matchmakers.  Often minty chocolate features in Christmas recipes and I liked that this is very much an all year round bake.  I also liked that the recipe doesn’t use up the whole box of Matchmakers….so the cook gets some perks!

These biscuits are crisp, thin and buttery; they hold their shape well during baking giving them a smart, uniform appearance.  They are lovely on their own, but would also be nice served with ice cream for dessert.

Ingredients

For the biscuits:

225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
140g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
280g plain flour
100g mint chocolate sticks, finely chopped – I used Matchmakers

Method

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla.

Stir in the flour and chopped matchmakers and bring together to form a dough.

Cut the dough in half, flatten each into a fat disc and wrap in clingfilm.

Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 190C/fan oven 170C/375F/gas mark 5.

Line two large baking sheets with baking paper or non stick foil – you may have to use the trays twice i.e. bake in batches.

Take the first disc of dough and roll out between two sheets of clingfilm – aim for about the thickness of a £1 coin (3mm approx).

Using a cutter no bigger than 6cm, cut out the dough.  You need to get 15 biscuits from each half of dough.

Place onto the prepared sheets leaving space around as they will spread when baking.

Bake for approximately 10-15 minutes until golden.

Leave to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Repeat the process with the second half of the dough.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Gingerbread houses

It isn’t Christmas without gingerbread and, much as I always love classic gingerbread men...

... I wanted to make something different to anything I’d made before.  I found this shop on Etsy selling cutters to make the cutest little gingerbread houses and I fell in love!  (Etsy is an incredible site; I know it gets some stick for some of the weird stuff you can find on it but I challenge anyone to spend 20 minutes or so browsing the site without finding something they want!)

The houses are a bit of work but can be made in stages, as gingerbread keeps very well for days and days in an airtight tin.  I always prefer piping on a flat surface so decorate all the panels and let the icing set, before assembling the houses.  As these are small they don’t require much icing to hold them together.

To provide a bit of scale, here’s a house next to my favourite mug (I dread to think how many cups of tea this cup has held!):

I’m not much of a decorator and – weak and pathetic as it sounds – get hand cramps if I do too much piping, so my houses are minimalist, but, if you’re better at that sort of thing you could really go to town.

The gingerbread was lovely – it was somewhere between ginger biscuit and the softer, more cakey, gingerbread.  It puffed up while cooking giving a nice smooth finish and the taste had just enough fire to it.  I don’t think it’s been a very exciting year for cookery books but this recipe came from one book that did capture my interest – Gingerbread Wonderland by Mima Sinclair.

This is likely to be my last post before Christmas so I shall sign off hoping that you all have a lovely day – doing whatever it is you have chosen to do! Happy Christmas everyone!

Ingredients

140g golden syrup
200g soft light brown sugar
200g unsalted butter
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
500g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg

To decorate: tubes of icing, and anything else you wish!

Method

Place the golden syrup, sugar, butter and spices in a saucepan larger than you need and melt together over a gentle heat stirring all the time until the sugar has dissolved – you can tell when this has happened by looking at the back of your spoon: if you can still see tiny grains it needs a bit longer.

Increase the heat and bring to the boil (don’t stir during this process).

Remove the pan from the heat and beat in the bicarbonate of soda – it will froth up, hence using a larger saucepan.

Stir only until the bicarbonate of soda is incorporated and put to one side to cool – about 15 minutes should be enough.

Fold the flour and salt into the cooled mixture.

Beat in the egg – take care not to overbeat the mixture; as soon as the egg is incorporated stop mixing.

Tip the dough out onto a work surface or – and this is my preference – a sheet of non stick foil.

Knead until it is smooth.  Initially the dough will be very sticky and it will be tempting to add flour but DON’T!  This will make the biscuit tough.

Cut the dough in half and shape into fat discs before wrapping separately in clingfilm and refrigerating for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 160C/fan oven 140C/325F/gas mark 3.

Roll the chilled dough out between two sheets of clingfilm and use the cutters of your choice.

Place on a baking sheet lined with either baking paper or non stick foil.

Bake for about 6-7 minutes, if making a small biscuit, or until just starting to feel firm to the touch.  It will puff up during cooking and if it feels almost marshmallow soft, it needs a couple of minutes longer.

Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes on the baking sheet before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Decorate as you wish.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Florentine biscuit bars

 

This recipe is adapted from the one in the BBC Good Food 25^th birthday edition.  As soon as I saw the combination of florentines and shortbread I was sold!  I always associate florentines with Christmas as that’s the only time of year we ever used to have them; I don’t know whether they have any particular association with Christmas but, growing up, I remember they always used to form part of M&S’s confection/biscuit range.  M&S used to make a mixed box i.e. milk, dark and white chocolate.  Tactically I would always eat the milk first as I was the only one in my family to like white chocolate so I didn’t have to rush with those!

This is a good recipe to use up all the odds and ends of nuts a baker always seems to have in their cupboard; I buy a bag of nuts for a particular recipe and then don’t use them all.  I seem to have endless bags with about 20-30g of nuts left in them – this is where they get to step into the spotlight!

The cherries and pistachios look so pretty in amongst the nuts and chocolate.  You could make it look extremely festive by using red and green cherries…although I try not to think too hard about what they do to turn those poor cherries such a vivid green.  Some questions are best left unanswered.

Ingredients
For the base:
200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g golden caster sugar
200g plain flour
100g ground rice flour

For the topping:
25g unsalted butter
75g golden caster sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour
75ml double cream
50g flaked almonds
25g whole blanched almonds
75g chopped nuts of your choice – I used a mix of pistachios and chopped hazelnuts
75g glace cherries, halved
100g chocolate chips


Method
Line a 20cm square tin with baking papermaking sure the paper comes up high enough that you can use it to lift the finished bake up out of the tin.

Use a food processor to blitz together the butter and sugar.

Add the flour and rice flour and pulse until it starts to come together – don’t overwork it or your biscuit will be tough rather than crumbly.

Press into the base of the tin taking care to distribute the mix evenly.

Prick all over with a fork, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or up to 2 days).

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Bake the biscuit base for 25 minutes.

While the base is cooking start work on the topping: place the butter, sugar and flour in a pan large enough to take all the other topping ingredients and gently melt together stirring all the time.

When all the sugar crystals have dissolved add the cream and stir until smooth.

Stir in all the nuts and cherries.

Stir in the chocolate chips.   If you prefer, you can omit the chocolate chips and instead melt the chocolate and drizzle over the baked bars.

Spoon the hot nut mixture over the just-baked base and ensure it is well spread out.  Be gentle – a spatula or the back of a spoon works well.

Return to the oven and bake until the top is firm but retains a little squidge; this will take anywhere between 10-20 minutes but it can catch quickly so check every 5 minutes.

Leave to cool, in the tin, on a wire rack.

Cut into fingers.

If you didn’t add chocolate chips, decorate by melting 100g chocolate by your preferred method i.e. microwave or hob, and drizzle over the cold bake. (I like to do this after I’ve cut the fingers as then the chocolate isn’t disturbed with cutting)

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.


Eat.

Lincoln ginger biscuits and Grantham gingerbread

Mr CC and I had a lovely long weekend in Lincoln recently (Lincoln is in Lincolnshire – England’s second largest county); it’s very hard to find much wrong with a county that has two fabulous ginger biscuit recipes. I was going to split the recipes into separate posts but spent so long wondering which one to post first that I decided it would be easier to do a double post!

Grantham gingerbread:

Lincoln ginger biscuits:

The biscuits are quite different; their only shared feature is ginger. Lincoln ginger biscuits are a crisp ginger biscuit with a buttery/syrup background that adds depth of flavour.  They are a crisper, more buttery version of the ginger biscuits you will typically find in any supermarket.  Grantham gingerbread is more unusual – it is a pale gingery, buttery rusk of a biscuit with a hollow, almost honeycomb style centre; not like any other gingerbread.  Utterly addictive, we worked our way through the majority of the box we brought back in one sitting.  It was only because we closed the box and moved it out of arm’s length that any survived to the next day!

Like many great recipes, Grantham gingerbread came about by a mistake.  In the 1740s William Egglestone ran a coaching house in Grantham where people would stop for some rest and sustenance.  He made a mistake, mixing up ingredients, for his Grantham Whetstones (a hard flat biscuit which was sold at the time) and created these puffy little delights, which were so popular he continued making them.  Sadly, so many local bakeries have closed that it’s actually hard to find Grantham gingerbread for sale anymore.  I hunted all over Lincoln and found them in one shop – this biscuit is too good to be allowed to die!

I made the biscuits per the recipes in the Lincolnshire cookbooks I picked up whilst on hols; I would make a couple of tweaks next time and note these in the ingredients listings below; mostly the tweaks are upping the amount of ginger - I like my ginger fiery!

If the biscuits alone aren’t enough to convince you to visit Lincoln then look at this – it’s the stunning cathedral, lit so beautifully at night that it glows with golden beauty!

Lincoln ginger biscuits

Ingredients

350g self raising flour
225g caster sugar
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger – next time I would use 4 teaspoons
115g unsalted butter
10g golden syrup – next time I would use 30g to get a better spread whilst baking
1 egg, beaten

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/ fan oven 160C/ 350F/ gas mark 4.

Line two baking sheets with non stick foil.

Place the self raising flour, caster sugar, bicarb and ginger in a bowl and mix together.

Heat the butter and syrup together in a pan until melted and combined.

Pour over the dry ingredients whilst mixing.

Add the egg, again, whilst mixing.

Bring the dough together into a firm, stiff ball.

Take walnut sized pieces of dough and roll into balls.

Place on the baking sheet – well spaced – and flatten.  Place 12 per tray (I got 28 in total)

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch.

Leave to cool on the baking sheets before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Bask in to glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Grantham gingerbread

Ingredients

340g caster sugar
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg
250g plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1½ teaspoons ground ginger – next time I would use 3 teaspoons

Method

Preheat the oven to 150C/ fan oven 140C/ 300F/ gas mark 2.

Line two baking sheets with non stick foil.

Beat together the sugar and butter until light and whippy.

Beat in the egg.

Fold in the flour, bicarb and ginger.

Take small balls of the dough and roll into balls

Place on the baking sheet, spaced apart to allow for spreading, No need to flatten.  Place 12 per tray; I chanced my arm with 15 and the touched. (I got 30 in total)

Bake for 20 minutes, then turn the trays and bake for a further 20 mins (about 40 mins in total) or until golden and puffy.

Leave to cool and firm up on the baking sheet before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Chocolate biscuits

 

I have never liked bourbon biscuits.  I don’t know why, because I should like them – chocolate biscuit and a chocolate filling…there’s nothing to dislike, and yet we’ve just never bonded.  I’ve always found them a bit stale and musty tasting, like they pretend they’re chocolate but they’re not really.  For me they are the biscuit equivalent of that person who your friend builds up saying, ‘you must meet X, they’re hilarious and you have so much in common.  You will become such great friends’, and indeed it sounds so promising and – of course - you trust your friend’s judgement but, when you meet them, you take against them so violently that you wonder if faking a seizure will get you out of the situation quicker.  Not that that’s ever happened to me.  Obviously....

The reason I chose this recipe is that the comments on the BBC Good Food website noted that the biscuit was like a bourbon.  Mr CC is rather partial to a bourbon but I’m not altruistic enough to make a batch of biscuits I don’t like.  This seemed a good middle ground as I suspected that the decoration being actual chocolate would add flavour, plus the fact that the biscuits weren’t sandwiched would make them a lighter eat (I know, I know....I’ve changed).  Plus, I’ve been sorting out my biscuit cutters and found this adorable sausage dog cutter and I’ve been so desperate to use it!

I always have a fondness for biscuit dough made with icing sugar; it is the smoothest, softest loveliest feeling dough you will ever handle.  It rolls like a dream and re-rolls patiently.  The biscuits held their shape well during baking too and, as they bake quickly, it’s a good recipe for fiddly cutters that produce details that might burn during a longer bake time.

The chocolate vermicelli and sugar balls added a nice crunch of texture to the biscuit but, more importantly, makes the dogs look like they’re wearing little jumpers!  It’s a hard hearted person who doesn’t smile at a tiny dog in knitwear.

Ingredients

For the biscuits:
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
85g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon milk
175g plain flour
55g cocoa powder

For the decoration:
100g milk or dark chocolate
Chocolate vermicelli or crumbled flake
Sugar paste eyes

Method

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and whippy.

Beat in the egg yolk, vanilla and milk.

Add the plain flour and cocoa powder and mix gently to bring together into a ball of dough – it will be very soft because of the icing sugar.

Shape into a fat disc, wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan oven 160C/350F/gas mark 4.

Line two baking sheets with baking paper of non stick foil (the latter is always my preferred option).

Roll out the dough between two sheets of clingfilm – this stops you having to flour a work top and risk changing the consistency of the biscuits.

Once the dough is about the thickness of a £1 coin take your chosen cutter and cut out; the dough re-rolls well so don’t waste anything!

Place the biscuits on the prepared sheet, leaving a little room for spreading whilst baking, although they don’t spread much.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until the biscuits feel sandy to the touch.

Leave to cool on the tray for 10 minutes before attempting to move to a wire rack, as they will be fragile straight from the oven.

Once cool, melt the chocolate – either in the microwave, in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, or in a pan using a gas diffuser ring (my preferred option these days).

Using a pastry brush pain the chocolate over the part of your biscuit you wish to decorate and then sprinkle over the chocolate flakes.

Decorate further as required.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Cornflake biscuits

  

I am always a fan of a biscuit that can be baking in the oven within 10 minutes of starting the creative process.  I am not a huge fan of cookies – I don’t like the softness and therefore favour a biscuit with crispness and bite.  These have a double crunch in that you get the crunch of the crisp buttery biscuit on your first bite, and then the cornflake crunch when you start chewing.  It is an extremely pleasurable sensation!

I wasn’t too sure on using self raising flour for a biscuit, but it works well – the biscuits puff up while baking and then become thin and crisp on cooling.
  

In theory any cereal would work with this recipe; I am tempted to make another batch with Rice Krispies, or Cheerios.  If your cereal tastes are a little more grown up than ours then I’m sure muesli or granola would work well too!  Regular readers will know that I favour the 2-for-1 approach with biscuits so I think I need to sandwich them with some jam next time!

Cornflakes work well in biscuits; previously I have made cornflake oaty biscuits which were delicious.  I’d say this recipe produces a lighter biscuit e.g. you can put more of them away in a single sitting.  What I’m saying really is: make a double batch!

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg yolk
175g self raising flour
50g Frosties – you can use classic cornflakes but increase the quantity of sugar to 125g)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan oven 160C/350F/gas mark 4.

Line two baking sheets with baking paper or non stick foil.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and whippy.

Beat in the vanilla and egg yolk.

Beat in the flour – you will end up with a dough similar in firmness/texture to sweet pastry.

Tip in the Frosties and gently work them into the dough using your hand.  Try not to crush them too much.

Cut the dough into 16 pieces; you can do this by weighing the dough and working out the weight that each biscuit needs to do, or be less exact and cut it into halves, halves again etc to get the 16 pieces. (I did this).

Roll each piece of dough into a ball and place on the baking sheet – 8 pieces per sheet.

Flatten the balls.

Bake for approximately 16 minutes and rotate the trays halfway through cooking time to ensure an even bake.  Don’t be afraid to pat the biscuits down at the halfway mark if they haven’t spread thinly enough.

They are baked when they are an even golden colour.

Leave to cool on the baking sheet before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

They will store well in an airtight tin for at least two days.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Coconut jam sandwich biscuits

  

There are few biscuits, in my opinion, that can compete with a good coconut biscuit.  There is something about the crumbly texture and subtle sunshine flavour that pleases me beyond words.  Team that crumbly, coconut flakiness with sticky, fruity jam and I am in biscuit nirvana!

You could, in theory, not sandwich the biscuits at all and leave them as they are.  My question to you though would be this: how on earth are you going to get away with eating two biscuits at a time with that kind of shoddy preparation?

Ready for oven....

....and baked:

The only time in preparing these biscuits is rolling the dough into balls and then rolling the balls in coconut.  I rather enjoyed this process – it gets quite repetitious and zen.  Because I am hopeless in uniformity I made a ball that pleased me then weighed it to ensure that all subsequent balls were the same size.  This may sound a bit extreme but I can assure you that, if I didn’t do this, the balls towards the end of the process would be double the size of those at the start – I can’t help myself.  Don’t they look pretty?

The biscuits have the soft, crumbly texture of a Viennese biscuit and would be lovely left as singles; however, if you do this I recommend adding some flavour to the biscuit be it vanilla or coconut extract.

Ingredients

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
50g cornflour
150g plain flour
50g icing sugar
100g desiccated coconut
Optional: a couple of drops of coconut extract

To sandwich: jam (or nutella) of your choice

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/fan oven 160C/350F/gas mark 4.

Line two baking sheets with baking paper or non-stick foil – you may have to bake the biscuits in batches and reuse these trays.

Mix together the butter, cornflour, plain flour, icing sugar and coconut extract until it comes together as a dough.

Take heaped teaspoons of the mix and roll into balls – I found a 15g ball of dough was the right size (I got 31 individual biscuits i.e. 15 1/2 when sandwiched).

Roll each ball in the desiccated coconut.

Place on the prepared baking sheet and flatten using a fork – space the biscuits out as they will expand as they bake.

Sprinkle a little extra coconut over the top to replace that displaced by the fork.

Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes until golden.

Leave on the baking tray to firm up for 10 minutes before removing from the tray and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Match the biscuits in pairs.

Spread one biscuit with jam then sandwich with the other biscuit.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.