Pinwheels, Twists and Marbled Biscuits

Having seen Mary Berry make some simple two tone biscuits on the TV, we decided to give it a go with some gluten free biscuit dough.

Making up a batch of standard biscuit dough, (200g caster sugar, 200g unsalted butter, creamed, then one egg added and mixed through).  We split it in two after the egg was incorporated.  To one half we added 200g plain flour (we used Dove's Farm gluten free) and to the other we added 150g plain flour and 50g cocoa powder.

The doughs were then brought together using the electric mixer before being pulled into a ball by hand.

The two doughs were rolled out carefully (we used a silicone sheet to stop sticking but clingfilm could also be used if that is what you have to hand.) 

Once rolled, we laid two small sheets of dough one on top of the other and rolled it, carefully, into a long tube - this would be used to form the pinwheel biscuits

After chilling the dough 'roll' for about 15 minutes (whilst we got on with making biscuit twists) we sliced the dough roll into discs.

Each disc was just less than 1cm in thickness and was carefully placed on the non-stick baking sheet.

The twists were made by cutting thin lengths of the bi-coloured dough (we used a rule and pizza wheel), twisting slightly and placing directly onto a non-stick baking sheet ... making sure to push the ends down to stop them unravelling during cooking.








Mary Berry suggested making marbled biscuits with the left overs... and this is what we did too!  They're really simple.  By combining the leftovers of the doughs, we rolled out, used a cutter and put the biscuits on a baking sheet.


The biscuits were chilled until ready to be baked in a moderate oven (170ºC) for 8-12 minutes (you need to keep an eye on them because varying sizes mean they cook at differing rates)

Once cooked, we allowed thebiscuits to cool for a short while on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  Then they were ready to be stored in an airtight container for eating later... next time we'll make the twists a little shorter so they fit in our pots.