Old school.

This week I attended some training at work. It was a three hour session on Virtual Learning Environments, and was, somewhat predictable, almost a complete waste of time. Don't get me wrong, the trainers were excellent.I just didn't need the training. I have been using computers for a long time, I know people in the business, and I am, as you might have noticed, a blogger. I can use interfaces that publish and promote online learning. So I was a little baffled when it was suggested to me that my professional development might benefit from the "Getting Used to Moodle" session.

Notice I said almost a complete waste of time. Completing the ten exercises in our training pack in a little under twenty minutes allowed me ample time to investigate the tea and coffee facilites on show.

They were good. Very good in fact. Which, given the record at my institition, was a rather pleasant surprise. The coffee machine made proper coffee. And by proper coffee I mean not only strong enough to bend spoons,but flavourful too. Given the good start I expected an inevitable skimping on biscuit quality. Not so. I eyed-up, pondered, considered and chose wisely. I also chose well, as my selection blasted me into a moment of nostalgia that I'm not entirely sure belonged to me, but was very nice nonetheless.The Shrewsbury biscuit - in this particular instance named simply the "fruit shortcake" is a small traditional English biscuit of shortbread and currents. It is cut using scalloped edge cutters and dusted with sugar before baking. And it is, quite simply, lovely. I feel that "lovely" is the perfect word as it conjures up quaint images of knitted cardigans, and afternoon tea and village fetes, and that is exactly what this simple little biscuit is about. It's not flashy, it doesn't even use vanilla extract (gasp! a recipe without vanilla extract, in this day and age!) and yet is a perfect little morsel of "lovely." Oh and yes, they are indeed traditionally little, which means that you are entitled to gobble up six or seven in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

This humble biscuit reared it's pretty little head in my training session and has stayed with me ever since. Fortunately I happened to mention this to a friend today, and she immediately commented that there is a recipe in Delia Smith's Book of Cakes. Naturally, why didn't I think of that.So, the minute I got through the door (before I'd even ditched my coat) I whacked the oven on to preheat, hunted down the recipe and by ten past six I had a place of quaint biscuits sitting on the table.

Sometimes it's the old recipes that are the best. The only way I changed the recipe was to put everything in a food processor. It saved all the rubbing of butter into flour and probably ten minutes of my time, and more and more time is of the essence. It also meant that there are smaller bits of currents throughout, and I liked the result.
If you have time, and are so inclined to add some quaint British biscuit charm to your weekend(or week night) whip up a batch of these. I don't think they'll last long, especially not if there is a pot of tea on the go.

Shrewsbury Biscuits - adapted, very slightly, from Delia Smith (makes about 20 small biscuits)

110g caster sugar
110g cold unsalted butter
225g plain flour
50g currents
1 large egg
1 tsp water

Preheat the oven to 180C and line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone liner.

Place the butter, flour and sugar in a food processor and whoosh until the texture of breadcrumbs. Then add the water, egg and currents and whoosh again until it forms a dough.

On a floured surface roll out the dough. It should be about the thickness of the biscuits you want to eat as there is no rising agent. I went for what I thought is "average" biscuit thickness. Cut with a small scalloped edge cutter (you can make them any size you want, but they are traditionally quite small) and then place on the baking sheets. Sprinkle with an extra dash of sugar and then bake for aprox 15mins - until golden (check though as mine became golden before the time was up)

Leave to cool completely on a wire rack and then serve.

It's all in the crack

Well, yet again it's been a while. Still trying to catch up with myself really, and to find the balance between work and home. It's pretty tough, as oh-so-many of you know.

I find that there is one sure-fire way to make things a little calmer, to bring a pause, a bubble of niceness, into the mania of the answering of emails, the printing and reviewing of documents, and the ridiculousness that is trying to book a room for an event.Biscuits. And knitting (preferably munching on the former whilst steadily, soothingly, progressing with the latter).
Tonight I needed a little space of calm to curl up in, so well before bedtime I donned the old dressing gown, rolled up the sleeves and perused a cookbook. Ah, it felt like old times, and because of this I wanted an old fashioned recipe. A biscuit from my childhood. Gingernuts. As soon as I fell upon the recipe in the suitably 1970s "Delia Smith's Book of Cakes" I knew all other suggestions were going out the window and this biscuit just had to be it.

They've just passed the taste test of my harshest critic whose response was "it's a proper biscuit!" followed by "sometimes what you really want is just a biscuit." How true that man is.I have a feeling these will be just the thing at work tomorrow, around eleven, with a cup of tea.

So, here I give you a recipe for a "proper" biscuit. Not a cookie. No, it's a biscuit, and a rather nice one at that. I would also like to dedicate this post to Siri, as a far too belated congratulations, and a huge thank you for the particular excellence of the postcards that have graced our flat recently. I have a whole backlog of things to post on the Mavens site (including wonderful and much needed warnings on tsunamis and bears - Molly, you crack me up),but frankly, nothing quite beats a Norwegian milk maid riding a pig, or a 1950s bikini-clad water skier. I have long drooled over some of Siri's ginger recipes, and so here,finally, is one of my own...

Gingernuts - adapted from Delia Smith's Book of Cakes

Makes 15 aprox.

4 oz self-raising flour
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
1 level tsp baking soda (on reflection I'd use 3/4 tsp, I feel one is a bit much)
1 1/2 oz muscovado sugar
2 oz cold butter, cubed
2 oz golden syrup

Preheat the over to 190C (375F) and line two baking trays with parchment.

Whisk together the flour, soda and ginger. Stir in the sugar (I would use a spatula, it'll come in handy later), and then rub in the butter until it is the texture of bread crumbs. Now add the syrup, and stir with the spatula until it begins to come together in a paste. You can then help work it together with your hands.

Form 15 equal balls of the mixture, and place them on the baking trays. Allow them a little space as they will spread. Press them down slightly to flatten them a little.

Bake for 15 mins, until the tops are cracked, and they are a dark golden colour. Cool, and enjoy with a nice strong cup of tea.

How to weather the weather

Got this?

Get this:

Oh you want this, you know you do. I certainly did as soon as I saw Molly's post about it. Reading Molly's blog also make be realise the true insanity of the fact that London came to a complete standstill on Monday due to a mere half foot of snow. I mean, come on, does a "heavy" snowfall really have to result in all the buses being cancelled, eleven out of twelve tube lines disrupted and the ballet cancelled - I'm more than a little sore about this last one as I missed seeing it last year due to a massive cock-up and my own stupidity (bought tickets, forgot to put it in the diary, booked something else and completely forgot), so having finally managed to not only have tickets, but to have remembered that I did, calling it off due to some frozen precipitation was more than a little irksome.

Other countries have snow, proper snow in large amounts, for months. Yes, months, not days. And they still get along with everything, albeit with cold feet and wood fires etc. I know that England doesn't get this type of weather very often (though I swear it used to be more common) and so when it does actually occurr it's all very exciting and unexpected, but why can't we have something in place - like some salt, or perhaps some infrastructure - to deal with it?BUT, I shouldn't complain. We both got a day working in the warm, laughing heartily at Sniff experiencing snow for the first time (which went along the lines of "oh, something's ruined my garden, I'm not going out" *sulk*... "I'm not going to give in to this white tyranny, I'm going out anyway," *loud disgruntled stomping through catflap* "OHMYGOD this stuff is cold and wet" *see above annoyed face which was followed by a frantic dash back through catflap into warm* ... "oh wait, I have a fur coat and this fluffy white stuff is actually rather hilarious to run about in, plus I can go in and out lots and put wet paw prints on everything...this is BRILLIANT") and of course I had an excuse to make these:

Double-chocolate biscotti, or; "Batter-splattered's blizzard spurners." I had to adapt Molly's recipe slighty, I veganised it, and used hazelnuts because I didn't have any walnuts. I also halved it because I knew how quickly two coffee-loving biscotti scoffers would get through this no matter how much I baked, and munching through a whole batch wouldn't do my waistline any good at all, particularly as the weather meant I wouldn't be going anywhere soon.This is my version of the recipe, but for the non-vegan walnut toting full-batch goodness head to Molly's blog. Check out her packaging too, there are some very lucky ladies out there if they're getting some of this in the mail. I know I won't be sharing mine anytime soon, I'm just not that nice when it comes to the need for chocolate in snowy weather.

Double Chocolate Biscotti

Makes about 15 (ish)

1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegan margarine
1/2 cup sugar
20g egg replacer powder (+ 55 g soy milk) - or whatever you choice of egg replacer suggests for one egg.
1/2 cup hazelnuts
50g dark chocolate, coarsly chopped
1/2 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with parchment or silicon stuff

In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, egg replacer powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the soy milk and beat and then add dry ingredients and beat until combined well. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.

On prepared baking sheet with floured hands form dough into a slightly flattened log, about 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Bake log for 35 minutes, or until slightly firm to the touch. Cool for about 5 mins

Remove from the tray and nn a chopping board cut the log diagonally into 3/4-inch slices. Arrange the slices cut sides down, on baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Cool on a rack. Biscotti keep in airtight containers 1 week and frozen, 1 month, but they last about five minutes in reality because they're so darn tasty.

Deck the halls with bows of cookies

I think I got a little carried away with the gingerbread tree decorations. No household of two people (and one cat) can realistically get through as many as I found myself making. Of course I could have made a half batch, but did I? Oh no, I just steamed ahead and in a few hours found myself surrounded by piles and piles of dark spicy gingerbread in all shapes and sizes!

Fortunately the biscuits should last a little while, and I'm off to visit the lovely lady K this evening and I'm sure she'll help me polish some off. The rest are destined for the tree (and lunchboxes). I am just hoping that Sniff doesn't suddenly decide that he not only likes gingerbread, but also wants to climb up the tree to get some.

I had great fun playing with my new royal icing that I picked up in the gourmet food store near my parents. I may like experimenting, but making my own seemed like far too much hassle, so I was very pleased when I stumbled across some. Be warned, there may well be a profusion of iced things coming out of the kitchen in the next couple of weeks because I had so much fun with it!

When I made up the recipe, which I adapted from the one I found here, I was a little unsure. It sounded good, but as I started I realised that actually 2/3 of a cup of molasses is rather a lot, and I'm not really that much of a fan. The treacly smell coming off the dough was a bit much for me, and I was a little worried that it wouldn't mellow as it baked and I'd be stuck with mounds of cookies I wouldn't want to eat. Fortunately, once the dough had rested and the spices in it developed a bit it smelt lovely, and then again, when baked the molasses moved to the background and allowed the ginger and other spices to shine through against a mild toffee background. So yes, there's no fear, I shall be scoffing many, many of these over the next few days! I'm pleased I made the little stars because then I can eat five and not feel too guilty. Not that I'm the kind of girl to eat five cookies at once, oh no, that would be too crazy *looks sheepish.*

So I guess now you want the recipe? I did adapt it slightly, and next time might tone down the molassas even more, adding some golden syrup instead. But this definitely makes a strongly spiced dark gingerbread, that isn't too hard, but will hold up for tree decorations.
Gingerbread for decorations - makes, well, rather a lot really! If there isn't a large family to help you out you might want to half this.

3 cups plain flour
pinch of salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp finely ground pepper
1/2 cup butter
1/2 sugar
1 large egg
2/3 cup molassas

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, soda and spices. In another large bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, beat until combined, add the molassas and stir well. Gradually add the flour mixture until you get a stiff dough. Leave to rest for two hours, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line baking sheets with parchment (I used four in the end). Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into whatever shapes you like. If you want to use them to hang on the tree make sure you remember to make a hole at the top for the thread to go through. I used a skewer for this. Gently place the cookies on the lined baking sheets and bake for 8-12 minutes depending on the size of the cookies.

Allow to cool fully on a wire rack, and then ice. Once the icing has set, thread with string or ribbon and hang on the tree.

So good they baked them twice

I've been having lots of fun in the kitchen today. I have been making some preparations for the busy weekend ahead. We've got friends coming for dinner tomorrow evening, DnD on Saturday and then it's the Great Pudding Stir-Up on Sunday.

I'm going to do the majority of the festive baking tomorrow, but couldn't resist giving this recipe for biscotti a go today. It was a handy one to start with not only because I knew they would keep for a couple of days, but also because there is talk of a cookie exchange in December and I wanted to try out some ideas. Someone had suggested that biscotti would be a good idea because they're somewhat sturdier than the average cookie, so good for shipping. Not having made them before I wanted to give it a go before doing the batch to send. I learnt from my jam exchange mistakes you see! No leaving it to the last minute this time around.

The only recipes I could find for biscotti were nut-based versions. What I wanted was something more suitable for the season. So I took the recipe in the Ottolenghi cookbook and replaced the pistachios and stem ginger with dried cranberries and white chocolate, keeping the little bit of ground ginger and using port rather than brandy (because I still haven't bought any since using it all up in the pudding!).

The results have come out rather well. I only had a sneaky taste of the edge pieces, but I think it's going to go down rather well on Sunday, and hopefully they will hold up for posting across the world.

I only made half a batch, but still got 11 pieces of biscotti out of it. I'll definitely be making this again - provided N likes it and could help out in the eating!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Biscotti - adapted from Ottolenghi

This recipe makes the full batch

80g unsalted butter
110g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp port (or brandy)
150g plain flour
1/2 ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
80g dried cranberries
60g white chocolate, chopped

Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating after each addition. Stir in the brandy, followed by the flour, salt and ground ginger. Finally stir in the cranberries and chocolate.

Lightly dust the lined baking sheet with flour and spoon the mixture on to the tray. Leave to rest in the fridge for about 30mins so it firms up.

Preheat the oven to 170C

Take the dough out of the fridge, and using your hands and some extra flour roll and shape it into a log of about 25cms length (I found this to be rather sticky, so flour it up!). It will spread during baking and so it doesn't need to be perfect. Bake for 20mins then remove from the oven and allow to cool. Turn the oven down to 130C

The dough will still be slightly soft because of being partially baked. Once it's cooled, use a serated knife and cut into 1cm strips. Lay them flat on the tray and return to the oven for about 40mins. Remove and cool.

Gingerbears

Gingerbears hibernate in tupperware,
where they sleep until teatimethen out come the gingerbears,
out from their tupperware
with spiced winter warmth to share...
...and then the cupboard was bare!

We don't do gingerbread men in this house, as you might have noticed. Just bears. Or moose, or cats. I whipped these up last night when I realised that N didn't have a nice little something ready to go in his lunch. Plus, I was in the mood for something cute like cut-out biscuits. I only made a half batch, and even though I didn't half the ginger they still felt like they were missing something. I might have to track down a different recipe and give it a go. Then I'll get to cute out more sleepy bears, yay!

"It's a damn fine exponant of the genre"

On Wednesday evening that I discovered N's favourite biscuits are milk chocolate hobnobs. It was a toss up between these and jaffa cakes, but N wasn't sure how far the "biscuit" definition could be stretched. Milk chocolate covered hobnobs won out. I was more than a little concerned that it's taken me this long to discover this vital piece of information. How can I fully satisfy his gastronomic needs without this crucial knowledge. It was so shocking because in the whole time I've known N I don't think I've ever seen a milk chocolate covered hobnob pass his lips! This conversation itself was triggered by the fact that earlier in the week N admitted that Cadbury's flake was probably his second favourite type of chocolate. Honestly how do men - or rather, how does my man - not think to impart these details as soon as possible!

So being a dutiful girlfriend, whilst out shopping for cherry tomatoes and strawberries, I also picked up a small packed of aforementioned biscuits.

My doing this however was not simply for N, but also to broaden the biscuit horizons of Sniff. Absurd, I know, but Sniff has become rather taken with digestives, and will happily accept any donations while you're attempting to dunk one in your tea, and by "happily accept" I mean demand loudly. As it happens, he's predictably fond of milk chocolate hobnobs too.

He's not the only one who's biscuit horizons have been broadened. I too am now on the biscuit-bandwagon. I had been rather shocked when N expressed a preference for the milk, rather than dark, chocolate covering. Surely dark chocolate is always superior, the dark chocolate covered digestive being a case in point. Milk chocolate covered is so, so wrong and thoroughly ruins a decent digestive, dark chocolate on the other hand is a different matter, and serves to raise the digestive to another level. So I was sceptical about this milk chocolate covered malarkey. But he was right, so right. I really should learn to trust him such things, as he does have impeccable taste. There is something about the combination of the oaty biscuit and the milk chocolate covering that works so so well, helped by the fact that they get the thickness of the coating just right: not too thick to detract from the biscuit, not too thin as to be stingy.

As N so rightly pointed out only a few minutes ago the milk chocolate covered hobnob is "a damn fine exponant of the genre."

I heartily agree.

Baking Day! (June): brownies, cupcakes and biscuits

Although there have been bits and pieces of baking going on, it feels like a very long time indeed since the last baking day. In the end it turned into rather a mammoth day, with me making not one, but three things! Clearly I had been feeling deprived.



I've been craving brownies all week for some reason. I'm not sure why because they are rarely something I think about eating of baking. Perhaps I just felt the need for a pure chocolate hit. So whatever was going to happen brownies would be made. However, I also wanted to make some biscuits. Ages ago I bought a moose-shaped cookie cutter and still hadn't gotten around to using it. N kept reminding me of it, and this week my new hoodie arrived in the post, complete with moose design and "mooses like peanut butter too..." slogan. So I knew I had to get the cutter out and give it ago, moose shaped peanut butter biscuits it had to be!

But, then I was faced with a real dilemma. I already had to things I wanted to make, but three new cookbooks on my reading pile. It felt rude not to try something from them, particularly as the Ottolenghi has such an impressive and extensive baking section. Also, N had commented in a cafe recently that their chocolate cake looked really good, and that he reckoned the only reason he thought so was because it was decorated with bits of Cadbury's Flake! I of course, replied with a sarcastic comment about now having to top anything I baked for him with Flake to make it appetising. Another challenge for my baking day, I had to make something I could stick a bit of flake on to continue the joke.

It occurred to me that I also hadn't indulged my cupcake love for a while too, and what would be more perfect than cute little cakes topped with flake. Fortunately Ottolenghi not only includes two cupcake recipes in his book, but I had all the ingredients for one of them.

Thus began the baking day adventures. My mission, to make low-fat brownies, peanut butter cut-out biscuits and hazelnut cupcakes topped with flake!

The brownie recipe came from Baking Bites, a blog I not only read twice a day (because she manages to update so often) but rate really highly. It not only talks about recipes, but reviews products and give tips and advice. It really is everything you'd want from a food blog. There had been a post on their previously about double chocolate brownies, that looked great, but then a few days later she posted about low-fat brownies. Now what with needing as low fat a diet as possible because of my back this immediately caught my eye, especially as her comments said that it didn't lack anything taste and texture wise die to being low fat. I eagerly copied down the recipe and decided to give it a go. The batter was really thick, and hard to spread in a parchment lined baking tray (I had to get N to hold the paper in place while I struggled with the spatula) but it did settle out whilst baking. I wasn't sure what the result would be like, especially as I managed to overcook it slightly and so it didn't come out as gooey as I had hoped. However, the taste was great. Rich and cakey (due to overbaking, next time I'd baked for less time to get it fudgey) and with a nice chocolate flavour that wasn't too sweet. Plus you definitely wouldn't know it was low fat.




Low-fat chocolate brownies (makes 8)

preheat the oven to 180C and grease/line a 10" by 6" baking tin

3/4 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2oz dark chocolate
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp fromage frais of low-fat yoghurt
1 egg
1 egg white
1tsp vanilla essence

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl melt together the butter and chocolate. Whisk this mixture with the sugars and yoghurt and when combined whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Gently mix in the flour. The batter will be really thick. Bake for about 20mins until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Allow to cool then cut into eight.

The peanut butter biscuits posed slightly more of a problem. I couldn't find a recipe anywhere for a peanut butter cookie recipe that you could roll out and cut shapes with. In the end I decided to just experiment. It could go horridly wrong, but that was a risk that would be worth taking! I used a basic recipe for cut-out biscuits and used peanut butter rather than butter. I also only used an egg yolk, since I had one left from the brownies. This meant the dough didn't really come together, so I had to add a bit of water, but in the end it rolled out fine and made some nice biscuits, not too sweet with a subtle peanut flavour. I glazed them with some of the icing I was going to use on the cupcakes.


Moosey peanut butter biscuits. (Makes 8-10 large biscuits)

Preheat oven to 190C and line/grease a baking sheet

125g plain flour
63g peanut butter
63g brown sugar
1 egg yolk (or 1/2 beaten egg)
water to make up to a dough

Beat the butter and the sugar and add the egg. Sieve the flour into the mixture and mix into a dough, gradually adding enough water to make it roll-able. Roll out and cut into shapes. Bake on a high shelf for aprox. 15 mins.

Finally I made the hazelnut cupcakes. I halved the recipe to make only six since there was already a rather large amount of baked goods in the house. Instead of using the cream cheese icing suggested in the book I used a whipped chocolate ganache, and plonked a hunk of flake on top.

Now you have all these delicious goodies, settle down in front of the cricket with a cup of tea and enjoy!