Vanilla butter biscuits

 

I’ll admit these don’t look much, but they taste delicious; such a light crumbly texture fragrant with vanilla and so buttery your mouth comes alive!  They would’ve looked better if I’d managed to pipe them all but I wasn’t up to it – the dough was just too thick for my puny grip to control.  I tried to soften the mix with hand heat, only putting half the mix in the bag etc...but nothing helped.  My grip let me down; I always sympathise with competitors who suffer the same affliction on World’s Strongest Man (a Christmas programme I have adored since early childhood!).

Before my hands packed up, I managed to pipe four and they do look prettier.  Next time I might add a dash of milk to the mix to slacken it.  A wide star nozzle is best for this task.

I thought it might be timely to feature this recipe because, not only are they lovely to eat with a cup of tea, but they are the perfect biscuit to serve alongside mousse type desserts.  We are fast approaching that time of year (I won’t use the word, in case it causes upset!) when such desserts might be made and served.

I used vanilla paste because I love the little flecks of seeds visible in the finished biscuit.  Vanilla extract would give the same flavour and many now contain the seeds.  Use whatever you have; no point getting precious about it!

I was tempted to drizzle a little melted chocolate across the biscuits to jazz them up, but time got the better of me.  I think they are an excellent blank canvas and could take many different types of decoration or additions.

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
140g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste – you can use vanilla extract if you prefer
300g plain flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C/ fan oven 150°C/ 325°F/ gas mark 3.

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

Beat together the butter and sugar until very soft and creamy.

Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla – you cannot overbeat it at this stage so, if using, while the mixer’s doing its work prepare your piping bag with a large star tip.

Stir in the flour.

Now, at this point you have two options: you can put the mix into a piping bag and pipe into pretty rosettes (use a big star nozzle), or take scant teaspoons and roll into balls, flattening them once on the baking sheet.  I found the dough too thick to pipe but I have grip issues with my hands so it might have been me being puny!

Leave a little space around each biscuit – they only expand a little during baking.

Bake for 12 minutes and then turn the trays.  They may need a further 5 minutes, or until they are golden and feel firm to the touch.  They will continue to firm on cooling.

Leave to cool on their baking sheets.

When cool, store in an airtight container.

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

Eat.

Sour cream cake with butter glaze

I leave home for work quite early in the morning and – odd though this is to say in August – the air has had a distinctly Autumnal smell the last few mornings; that unmistakable yet hard to describe wet, burnt leaf smell.  I don’t mind this at all – Spring and Autumn are by far preferable to Summer and Winter, but it did make me hanker after a comforting no-frills sponge cake.  The sort of cake you need to pair with a big mug of tea.  This is the cake!

I don’t use my ‘fancy’ cake pans as often as I should, tending to automatically reach for my 20cm round springform tin.  But a plain cake benefits from the jazziness a fancy pan can provide.  This is a Wilton pan – I think it’s from the Dimensions range.  I like how every slice of bundt cake looks like a piece of abstract art!

This cake has a dense sponge texture – tiny air bubbles and a small crumb:

The butter glaze is what elevates it to something very special.  Part of the glaze sinks into the cake, while the rest sits on top giving a sticky crunch not dissimilar to a lemon drizzle cake. 

If this cake were a time of the week it would be 5pm on a Sunday when all cooking and chores are done and you’re lazing about waiting for Antiques Roadshow or Countryfile to come on the television!

Ingredients

For the cake:

190g unsalted butter, at room temperature
270g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
270 plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
225g sour cream

For the butter glaze:

100g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

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

Spray a 2.5litre (10 cup) bundt pan with cake release spray.  Mine was a Wilton Dimensions pan, but any equivalent sized bundt will work.  If you don’t have a bundt tin of this size, a 900g (2lb) loaf tin and a 450g (1lb) loaf tin will do the job!  That’s two cakes from one mix – although perhaps reduce the cooking time to maybe 30 minutes.

Start by beating together the butter and sugar.  Take time over this and beat until it is pale, light and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like it might curdle.

Beat in half the flour.

Beat in half the sour cream.

Beat in the remaining flour, along with the baking powder and salt.

Beat in the remaining sour cream.

Spoon the mix into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool for an hour in the tin, before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

Now make the butter glaze: place all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat until the butter has melted.  Stir frequently.

Bring to the boil and let boil for about a minute before reducing the heat to a simmer for about five minutes – this is to the thicken the glaze.  If it isn’t thicker at this time (you’re aiming for runny honey type texture) simmer for another few minutes  - it’s not an exact thing.

Remove from the heat and brush half the glaze over the cake – this will let the sponge absorb it.

Leave the rest of the glaze to cool for about 10 minutes.

Spoon the remaining half over the cake and leave to set.

Serve in thick slices with a mug of tea.

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

Eat.

Strawberry and clotted cream whirls

OK, so summer’s forgotten that it’s meant to be here at the moment but I will still, resolutely, pursue summer baking. So what if these delightfully summery whirls are eaten under grey skies with the rain lashing against the window? Actually, today was rather lovely – warm and sunny, so maybe baking summer-themed items makes the weather realise how it’s meant to behave!

My first comment about these little biscuits is to save yourself some time and make a double batch. You’ll thank me for it later! Also remember, that while the quantity below makes 22 individual biscuits, you need 2 for the finished whirl – so that’s only 11 whirls and, let’s be honest, when was 11 ever enough of such a lovely thing?

Buttery, crumbly, shortbread style biscuits with a hint of fragrant vanilla are sandwiched with thick, golden, clotted cream and strawberries. I’m drooling just typing it! The recipe said to add the cream and strawberries separately but I found they didn’t sandwich well, so I chopped the strawberries smaller and swirled them through the cream.

To keep the biscuits crumbly and not soggy, only sandwich them when you’re ready to eat. It’s not a problem as they are quick to complete if you have the components ready – plus, everyone really enjoyed building their own!

The biscuits would work so many different ways – I’m already thinking about dipping them in molten chocolate, or sandwiching with nutella. Or, if you can’t be bothered with anything fancy, just eat them as they are.....

Ingredients

For the biscuits:

250g unsalted butter, softened
200g plain flour
50g cornflour
50g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling:

300g clotted cream (or whipped cream if you prefer)
250g strawberries, sliced

Method

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

Line two large baking sheets with baking paper

Beat together the butter, flour, cornflour, icing sugar and vanilla until a smooth dough forms.

Spoon it into a piping bag (it’s nicest to use a star shaped nozzle so you get definition to your biscuits).

Pipe ovals onto the prepared baking trays. About the size of an egg is what you should aim for. Leave a little space for expansion during baking.

At first the paste will feel thick and piping will be hard work but, as it warms in your hands, it will get easier.

You should get approx 22 biscuits – don’t forget that each finished whirl will use two biscuits.

Bake for 15 minutes or until light golden brown. Mine took a little longer at 18 minutes, but check them before then.

Leave to cool, on the tray, on a wire rack – the biscuits will be soft and crumbly so don’t try to take them off the tray before they are cold.

When ready to serve (don’t do it too far in advance or the biscuits will soften) take one biscuit and spoon clotted cream onto the flat side.

Lay some sliced strawberry on top and then sandwich with a second biscuit. I actually found it a lot easy to chop the strawberries and swirl them through the cream – that meant both biscuits stuck better!

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

Eat.

Brown sugar shortbread

Mr CC is currently going through a second childhood and enjoying a renewed interest in all things dinosaur. When we saw these dinosaur biscuit cutters it took him about 30 seconds to decide they needed to be put to use making shortbread. Remembering the old Norwegian proverb that, biscuits are made with butter and love, I rolled up my sleeves and set to work! (NB. Regarding the dinosaur at the bottom of the next picture – I wasn’t sure what end his eye should go so I did half at one end, half at the other. Looking at the picture now, I’m pretty sure that’s the wrong end!)

Many shortbread recipes, particularly the more traditional ones, require you to push the dough into a mould rather than roll and cut. I hunted for a recipe that could be rolled and came across this one for brown sugar shortbread with a hint of spice. This sounded a winner! I have made shortbread biscuits before (a long time ago – pre blog) and found them tricky to roll out – these were a doddle.

The biscuit has the lovely shortness that you associate with shortbread – that crumbly butteriness, but I also really liked the addition of brown sugar gave the biscuit a rich flavour. The hint of spice is not at all over-powering and just adds some interest in the background.

I love it when baking fills my home with lovely aromas and these biscuits are right up there with the best! The brown sugar filled my flat with what I can only describe as a Christmassy treacle waft – the sort of delicious smell that makes you feel happy!

Hard to say how many biscuits you will get as cutter sizes vary. This basic mix is quite generous but I made 1.5x the quantities and the recipe scales up without any problems.

Now if I may digress – here’s a little something I’m working on for Christmas dessert...I’ll post it on the site shortly (definitely in time for Christmas). It may have taken 10 months but I’ve finally mustered up courage to use the gorgeous copper jelly tin Mr CC got me for Christmas last year.

Ingredients

25og unsalted butter, at room temperature
140g soft brown sugar – I used half dark brown, half light brown
250g plain flour
90g rice flour
½ teaspoon mixed spice
small pinch of salt

Method

Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Add the flours, spice and salt and mix gently until just starting to form a soft dough – I brought the dough together with my hands.

The dough will require a little light kneading to bring it into a nice, smooth, short (i.e. buttery) dough.

Cut the dough into four and wrap individually in clingfilm – shape the dough into patties as it will make it easier to roll.

Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 160˚C/fan oven 140˚C/315˚F/Gas mark 2-3.

Lightly flour a sheet of clingfilm and roll one of the dough patties out between the clingfilm – you’re aiming for a thickness of approx ½ cm.

Use the cutter of your choice and place the biscuits on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Leave a gap between the biscuits as they will expand – but not much.

The leftover dough will re-roll and can be used. It is very good natured for a shortbread and I re-rolled my scraps numerous times with no loss of quality.

Repeat this process with the remaining 3 patties of dough.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until firm to the touch – use your judgement as it all depends on your oven and the thickness of your biscuits. One tray of mine took 25 minutes, whereas another was nearer 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool, on the trays, for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Biscuits are soft on coming out of the oven and if you try to lift them too soon they will crumble.

When completely cool store in an airtight container.

Decorate as you wish before serving but, to keep the biscuit crisp, leave the decorating as late as possible.

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

Eat

Bara brith (Speckled bread)

When I saw this lovely loaf cake on Sam’s blog I knew I had to make it. The recipe comes from the North Wales Tourism website so it must be authentic; I stress that because I thought Bara brith always contained yeast and this, clearly, doesn’t.

I can’t ever think about Wales now without “Gavin and Stacey” coming to mind. It is one of my favourite comedies of recent times and I was trying to think how the Welsh characters would describe this cake. Stacey would definitely call it “lush” whereas my favourite character, Nessa, would probably go for a more measured, “tidy”.

There’s something enticing and comforting about a fruity slice of cake spread with creamy, rich, yellow butter. As to how much butter – a friend of mine described this perfectly when she said “butter must be thick enough so you can leave teeth marks in it”. I couldn’t put it any better:

The most fun part of this recipe is soaking the fruit. Whether in tea (as for this recipe) or spirits (Christmas cake) I can never resist peeking in the pot to see how much of the liquid has been absorbed. The fruit turns glossy and plump – it’s practically botox for dried fruit!

I think there’s no point blogging if you’re not going to be honest and, the whole time I was baking this cake, I truly believed it would end up in the bin. So much so that as soon as it came out of the oven I started to bake a back-up cake! My first mistake was doubling the quantities to make two loaves – have you tried mixing that much fruit into a tiny amount of cake? Let’s just say that I now feel fully prepared to enter the next arm wrestling contest I come across. My second concern was that the mix was so dry; I added some milk until it at least started to look like a cake mix although milk was not included in the source recipe.

When the loaves came out of the oven they looked nobbly, hard and dry so I thought I should cut a slice to see what the inside was like. At this point they were still definitely heading for the bin. The cut slice started to comfort me – the crust which formed during baking was just a crust and the inside was moist and fruity. I tasted it and was underwhelmed. Still heading for the bin. But something made me butter it and try it how it is meant to be eaten. Please now imagine the Hallelujah chorus playing at full volume in my kitchen because it was delicious! It so needs the butter (salted) to bring all the flavour and texture alive. It’s heavenly!

Ingredients

450g mixed dried fruit – I used a mix of sultanas, raisins, currants, and blueberries
300ml tea – make as usual but don’t add the milk!
2 tablespoons marmalade
1 egg
6 tablespoons soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon mixed spice – I put a little extra as I like it spicy!
450g self raising flour
Milk as necessary

To glaze: honey

Salted butter to serve

Method

Start by soaking the fruit for 24 hours. Place all the fruit in a bowl and cover with the tea. Stir when you happen to walk past!

Preheat the oven to 170˚C/fan oven 150˚C/325˚F/Gas mark 3

Line a 900g loaf tin with baking paper – this will help you to get the loaf out of the tin.

Mix the marmalade, egg, sugar, spice and flour into the bowl containing the fruit and tea.

Spoon into the loaf tin and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes or until a skewer, inserted into the centre of the loaf, comes out clean. After about an hour of baking check that the loaf isn’t browning too much – if it is, either move it down a shelf in the oven or loosely cover the top with foil.

Leave to stand in the tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes then turn out onto the wire rack.

Use a pastry brush to cover the top of the loaf with honey. As the loaf is so warm, the honey will melt and become easy to work with.

The cake will keep for several days in an airtight tin.

Serve in slices, thickly buttered.

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

Eat.

History corner – Normandy short cakes

“The Housewife’s Referee”, subtitled ‘A treatise on culinary and household subjects’ was published in 1898. Written by Mrs de Salis, who you may remember from other books such as “Tempting Dishes for Small Incomes”, “New Laid Eggs”, and “Dogs and their Ailments”, it takes a rather unimpressed view of the modern woman.

This is my favourite bit from the introduction. I quote word for word because to edit it would be a crime:

The silly ignorance of so many gentlewomen is astounding. Let me give an example: I was present at a lecture a short time since at one of the recent cookery exhibitions, where Miss Young was teaching pastry making, when a lady among the audience asked,

“Must we put out bare hands into the dough?”

“Certainly,” replied the teacher; “you cannot make it otherwise.”

“Oh, then,” remarked the questioner, “perhaps that is the reason why I failed when I made my last tart; my gloves did seem in the way!”

I consider this a very good example of the terrible ignorance which prevails regarding the knowledge of the cuisine.

I think we’ve all learned a valuable lesson there – the number of long white evening gloves I’ve wasted! Also, while Mrs de Salis is keen to point out the failings of others I would like to expose her, for this recipe undoubtedly contained a typo. She says to use the same quantity of flour as the sugar and butter; any seasoned biscuit maker will tell you that you need a lot more flour in order to bind the dough. Further, her instructions tell you to add flour until you have a stiff dough and then roll it out - so the dough is obviously not meant to be as soft and sticky as it was. The amounts set out below are what I actually used rather than her flawed recipe!

The whole tone of the book is rather high-handed and Mrs de Salis or Harriet, as she would no doubt not let me call her, can’t ever resist slipping in some heavily italicised French whenever the chance arises. These are actually called Sables Normands with the English provided as an afterthought.

I didn’t want to add too much flour and lose the buttery focus of the biscuit so I made a decision to roll little balls of dough between my hands rather than add more flour so I could roll it out and use a cutter. I think that was that right way to go as the texture was great – crumbly but rich and flavoursome.

As is often the way with old recipes there is no cooking time or temperature given. We are told the oven should be “brisk” which I’ve interpreted to mean medium-hot. You will note from the rather scanty ingredients list below that the biscuits are not flavoured. Personally, I’d be tempted to add some vanilla but wanted to keep them as the recipe stated for this first attempt.

Ingredients

3 eggs
230g/ 8 oz caster sugar
230g/ 8 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
460g/ 1lb plain flour – don’t be afraid to use more if the dough is too sticky

Method

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

Line 2 biscuit sheets with baking paper.

Place the eggs, sugar and butter in a bowl and beat until well combined.

Using your hands (remember ladies – no gloves!) add the flour a little at a time until you have a thick and firm paste. I never actually achieved this state and my dough remained too soft to roll.

If your dough permits it, roll out the paste between two sheets of floured baking paper and use a cutter to cut out biscuits. As my dough was soft and I didn’t want to over flour it and diminish the butteriness I took walnut sized balls and rolled them between my floured hands.

Place on a baking sheet, leaving a little room for expansion. If you’ve rolled balls, flatten them slightly.

Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes until the biscuits have turned pale golden.

Remove and leave to cool on a wire rack. Remove the biscuits from the baking sheet when they have cooled – they are far too soft when straight from the oven.

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

Eat.

Valentine’s biscuits

I must confess that everything about Valentine’s Day makes me recoil from it with great speed – it’s so cynically marketed and, if you love someone, why do you need to be told to demonstrate it on a particular day? Why not every day?

Anyway, rant over (it’s fairly hypocritical anyway as I bought a card, gifts etc for Mr CC), this is my attempt at some Valentine’s baking. You can of course make these biccies at any time of year and ‘seasonalise’ (I’ve invented a word) them by using a different shaped cutter. And well worth making they are too as they are short and buttery and crispy but also crumbly. Just about my perfect biscuit.

When you bite into these you might well think they are shortbread – they aren’t, but they have a similar texture. If you cut a little shape out of the middle of some of the biscuits you can sandwich them with a whole one and create a pretty little window effect.

I sandwiched some with nutella, some with raspberry jam and left some plain. Don’t add the filling until the day of eating otherwise you might lose some of the crispness of the biscuit.

You can reroll any cut outs but I baked them – you are rewarded with delicious little crisp mouthfuls of biscuity heaven!

Ingredients:

For the biscuits:
225g unsalted butter, diced and at room temperature
100g caster sugar
200g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
100g ground almonds

To sandwich (optional): nutella or raspberry jam. I suspect any jam or curd would work well.

How to make:

- Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until a dough just starts to form.

- Knead the dough into a ball and then wrap in clingfilm and refrigerate for 2 hours minimum (it’s a very soft dough so needs this long).

- Preheat the oven to 140°C/fan oven 120°C/275°F/Gas mark 1.

- Line two large baking sheets with baking or greaseproof paper.

- Remove the dough from the fridge and knead until it has softened. If it is still sticky add some more flour and knead this in. I added about a further 2-3 tablespoons.

- Cut the dough in half and roll one half out between two sheets of generously floured baking paper. Normally I wouldn’t flour baking paper but this dough needed it – use your judgement.

- Roll it out to 1/2cm thick and then cut out using your chosen cutter. If you’re planning to sandwich the biscuits take a smaller cutter and cut the centre out of half the biscuits.

- Place the biscuits and the cut out middles onto a baking sheet leaving about 1-2cm gap between them as they expand on baking.

- Repeat with the second ball of dough.

- Bake in the oven for approximately 40 minutes or until the biscuits are a pale golden brown. I was sceptical at a long bake at a low temperature but loved the effect – the biscuit had a much more delicate texture to it. Mine actually took a little over 40 minutes but it’s worth it. Check after 20 minutes in case the trays need turning to ensure an even bake.

- Place the trays on a cooling rack and let the biscuits cool. Don’t even think about moving them until they are cold as they are too fragile and will break.

- Store in an airtight container until you wish to serve, then sandwich with nutella or jam. Of course, you can leave them plain and enjoy the buttery almond taste on its own!

- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.

- Eat.