Shortbread

Looking through ingredients, we needed something quick and easy to fill the oven whilst we made a double batch of choc chip nut butter cookies.  It had to be a bake that wasn't fussy or requiring kit like a mixer...

Grabbing 160g room temperature butter, 250g Dove's Farm Plain flour, 85g golden caster sugar (plus a little less than a Tablespoonful for sprinkling) and a teaspoon of baking powder.  This is what we did -






The sugar and butter was 'creamed' (mixed by squeezing with ONE clean hand - always keep the other free for answering door/tweeting/whatever). 


Then the dry ingredients were included and mixed until it came together in a sort of dough.

Lining a rectangular baking tin, the dough was pressed out to cover the tin. 

Placing the shortbread into a pre-heated 160ºC fan oven (top shelf) it was baked for 25 minutes, checked then returned to the oven for a further 20 minutes.  You may need to check your bake depending on your oven... we were also baking cookies at the same time so the oven temperature varied a little throughout the baking time.

Checking for baking, you can see a thumb print left in the shortbread... it was too soft at that point!

Once thoroughly baked and just starting to brown, the shortbread was removed from the oven, sprinkled with a scant Tablespoon of caster sugar and allowed to cool in the tin for five minutes.  The
shortbread was then scored (we used a metal palette knife) to make portioning easier later.

After cooling fully in the tin, the shortbread was lifted out on the greaseproof paper and cut through (we used a cheese knife from a set that's never been used on cheese!) to make bite sized pieces.  We made 18 biscuits with this amount of ingredients.


Some biscuits were stored in airtight containers and a couple were taste tested with an espresso after a damp dog walk.  The shortbread was judged as "wow" and I was told "you *need* to eat this".  Success on a plate. 

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.

Lavender Shortbread Stars

 

When we heard that Sainsbury's would be stocking Lavender Sugar in their  Taste the Difference baking range, we knew immediately what recipe we'd be trying.  Sous Chef J adores the smell of lavender (it's a calming scent he uses when he is on a trip to London - more on that will be detailed on our sensory blog soon...) so when he saw some lavender shortbread on sale at the Allergy and Free From show last year, he was keen to try a piece.  He loved it.  So, that's the recipe we're going to try for ourselves.

We got a recipe off the BBC website and it turns out it's on their site as the Duchess of Cornwall tried some lavender shortbread at Grey Gables when she appeared on the Archers.






The ingredients are just 225g unsalted butter, 125g lavender sugar, 300g plain flour (we used Dove's Farm Gluten Free) and 50g ground rice (we used brown rice flour).

Having cubed the butter, we added it to a bowl which contained the sifted lavender sugar (this is done to preserve the flowers).  Once the butter was at room temperature, it was creamed with the sugar, using an electric hand mixer, until light and fluffy.

Next, the sifted flour was added to the creamed mix with the lavender flowers, and this was mixed with a wooden spoon.  Once a fine breadcrumb consistency was achieved, it was time to combine by hand until the dough started to come together and there was no mix left on the bowl's sides.

Placing the dough on some cling film, it was kneaded until smooth.  Then we rolled it into a sausage and halved it.  Half was put in a marked up plastic bag and placed in the freezer for use at a later date.  The remainder was flattened out and put in the fridge to chill for 10-15 minutes.

Whilst the dough was chilling, the oven was heated to 180ºC and the baking sheets were lined with silicone paper.

Having chilled, the dough was removed from the fridge and rolled to about a 5mm thickness between two sheets of cling film - this works well and means no additional flour is needed to stop the mix sticking.



The star shapes were cut out and the biscuits placed on the baking sheets, sprinkled with a little more lavender sugar and put back in the fridge to chill for another 15 minutes.

Once fully chilled, the biscuits were placed in the preheated oven and cooked for 12-15 minutes depending on their size/thickness... until they were beginning to go golden at the edges.

Leaving the biscuits to cool for 5 minutes on the sheet, they were then fully cooled on a wire rack.

We served our 'taste tester' shortbread rounds with some vanilla ice... and very tasty they were too!  No wonder the Duchess of Cornwall liked the shortbread she 'tried' on the Archers.

We made all these with half the dough using the amount of ingredients in the recipe... but don't think they'll last long.