Week Four: Biscuits

I have to say something on a personal note before I get into biscuit week... I have had a really exceptionally shitty couple of days, and that is partially why I am a few days behind schedule in posting about my biscuit adventures... so today, when Alexis Hall mentioned my blog in his newsletter I definitely did not have a panic attack because I was so excited (on top of the existing anxious and stressed and sleep-deprived from the aforementioned shitty couple of days) that my stupid brain didn't know the difference between joy and being chased by a lion. Truly, the most ridiculous panic attack in the history of the world. But in all seriousness, I'd like to say an extra special thank you to Alexis Hall, for whose books I was already daily grateful, for the really lovely shout out which could not possibly have come on a better day. 

But anyway, I hope those of you who have followed that link here enjoy my posts about Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake and all the amazing baked goods that are coming from it, and also the prior posts which are also mostly Alexis Hall (though I am planning on lots of post-Rosaline Palmer posts inspired by other authors too).

So, without any further ado... 

Happy biscuit week! 

"Biscuits" here is, of course, British for "cookies" not the fluffy buttery lovely things that you ideally make with White Lily flour and serve with sausage gravy.

Cookies are probably the first thing I ever baked and the first thing I loved to bake, and I haven't been baking lots of cookies lately but there's something extremely comforting about baking cookies and I really, really enjoyed all the cookies I baked this past week. 

Also they are by far the easiest baked good to share so in addition to the people who generally get baked goods from me, my neighbors and coworkers got them this week. 

Blind Bake

Nankhatai

So, I'll admit, I stressed about about trying to figure out what the blind bake was for this challenge, because all I had to go on was “a type of street biscuit from Delhi that Anvita had made the fatal mistake of baking to the recipe she’d learned from her Punjabi grandmother instead of the one Marianne had put in front of her.”

And I reached out to friends who knew more of Indian sweets than I did and got a few recommendations for what it might be, and I had pretty much settled on what I was going to attempt when, while baking other biscuits and listening to the audiobook chapter while I baked other biscuits, I got to the end of the chapter, where the week's winner was announced and among their accomplishments were that their "nankhatai were nanakhatastic." Apparently I missed that the first time through. So, one of the aforementioned friends sent me some nankhatai recipes and I went with this one.

Ingredients: 

• 75 g whole wheat flour
• 25 g besan
• 1 tbs semolina
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3 pods of green cardamom's seeds, powdered (about 1/2 tsp)
• 65 g powdered sugar
• 75 g ghee

Instructions:

• Preheat oven 350F
• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
• Grind cardamom seeds
• Sieve flours, semolina, sugar, and baking soda together
• Gradually add ghee and bring the dough together to make a stiff dough. Do not kneed dough. 
• Make 12 balls and decorate. I used chopsticks to make a little "x" because that's how the picture looked.

• Bake for 10 minutes
• Remove to a wire rack, immediately. BE CAREFUL they are fragile and will fall apart if you aren't very gentle!
• Cool and store in an airtight jar for up to three weeks (so says the website. Mine disappeared much more quickly.)

These cookies are SO lovely and yummy and cardamom-y and crumbly and would definitely make again. 

Highly recommend. Super tasty and super easy... especially when your friend and neighbor brings you butter and besan because you whined on Facebook that you needed them. 

Rosaline's Boozy Biscuits

Blackberry Chambord Jammy Dodgers 

I was quite excited about making these as they look a bit like a linzer tart cookie and I am a fan. Also, just call me Marianne Wolvercote because I am a fan of anything that puts booze in baked goods. When I did my GBBO bake along, my friend accused me of trying to turn her into an alcoholic. It was a slightly dramatic claim, but I do like boozy flavors. I bought Chambord just for this but I'm excited for all the ways I'm going to utilize it going forward.

I went with this recipe for the cookie and proceeded as follows:

Ingredients:

• 115 g unsalted butter
• 115g sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract- note: I don't think I've ever measured vanilla extract in my life. Just splash some in and it'll be fine.
• 250 g AP flour
• 2 tbs icing sugar 

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper
• Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
• Gradually beat in egg and vanilla 
• Gradually add flour until crumbly dough forms
• Gather dough together on a lightly floured surface and kneed until slightly sticky. Work in the rest of the flour 
• Chill in the fridge for 40 minutes

• After the dough is chilled, roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about 3 mm thickness
• Use a 6 cm round cutter to stamp out two dozen circles. I didn't have an appropriate sized cutter so I used a water glass and it was fine
• Use a smaller circular cutter, about 3 cm, to cut out the insides of half the circles- I had a little plastic shot glass thing, or previously I've used the wide end of a pastry tip for similar things in the past
• For best results, chill dough for another 30 minutes before baking. I neglected this step because I wasn't paying attention and it was fine
• Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly golden
• Leave on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire wrap to cool completely
• Once entirely cool, sprinkle the tops of the cookies (with the holes) with powdered sugar. 

I apologize: I completely neglected to photograph the cutting of the cookies, and also the blackberry jam making process, but it's pretty straightforward. 

Ingredients:

• Blackberries
• Sugar
• Chambord

Instruction:

• Put the blackberries and the sugar in a pan and cooked over medium-low heat until jammy. 
• Take it off the heat and add a healthy glug (I'd guess a quarter cup) of Chambord (other raspberry liqueurs are available) 
• Strain out the seeds (I did not strain out the seeds but you ABSOLUTELY should because my not-seedless blackberry jam totally ruined otherwise lovely flavored and textured jammy dodgers) and allow to chill 

Once your jam and cookies are both cool, assemble sandwich-style and voila- homemade boozy jammy dodgers. 

Cinnamon Brandy Snaps with Triple Sec Chantilly Cream

I can honestly say I do not understand why anyone would ever decide to make these. They are a fuckton of work and the pay off is minimal. I mean yes, they taste good, and if you eat them IMMEDIATELY the texture is interesting in a good way... but there are lots of things that taste good and are way less finicky. I am not a fan of finicky. 

I used this recipe, increasing the cinnamon because these are supposed to be cinnamon brandy snaps, but honestly, they just taste like molasses. Which maybe with further experimentation could be corrected, as I found other recipes that use golden syrup rather than molasses and they're probably a better bet and probably more accurately British... but as said above, finicky... probably not going to bother... but if, unlike me, you love brandy snaps, try that!

Ingredients

• 1/2 c butter
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 c dark molasses
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp grated orange rind
• 1/4 c flour
• 2 tbs brandy

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 300F
• Have three glass ramekins set aside
• Combine butter, sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and orange zest in a saucepan and bring to a boil
• Remove from heat
• Whisk in flour
• Add brandy and stir until everything is blended and smooth
• Set the saucepan in a basin of simmering water to prevent hardening while working
• Drop THREE  brandy snaps, one tablespoon at a time onto an un-greased baking sheet *note: you cannot use a silicone baking mat. It will not work. Straight onto an un-greased baking sheet.
• Bake 14 minutes
• Remove from oven and let cool for just a few seconds, then quickly peel up with a spatula and place inside ramekin, press in to shape. Then repeat until you've made them all.

This is very difficult. I'm not going to lie, I'm a decent baker. I'm not winning Bake Expectations, but I hold my own. These are a b. They run and grow when they bake, and as I said before you cannot use a silicone mat or they don't cook properly, and you have to wait for them to cool enough to lift them otherwise they just gunk up like this initial attempt of mine:

But, if you let them cool too much they will shatter when you try to form them, so you have to wait until they are JUST the right temperature to squish them into a little ramekin and make little cups with them. I got better as the attempts went on and luckily the recipe made enough that my several *complete* fails didn't keep me from making a dozen 

Then, the only part of this recipe I would absolutely do again, the Triple Sec Chantilly Cream. Which is basically just very sweet, boozy, whipped cream. Which is, to be clear, very very tasty.

I was really worried that the triple sec would mess up the texture of the whipped cream so I started with just a tablespoon but you could barely taste it so I added more and more. There was at least a quarter cup in there, honestly, maybe more. And then I added more sugar. And the end result was... really, just yum. 

Ingredients

• 8oz heavy whipping cream VERY COLD
• 1/4 c triple sec 
• 1/2 c powdered sugar

Instructions

• Use electric stand or hand mixer, combine all ingredients and whip until stiff peaks form. Add more triple sec and/or sugar to taste.  Pro tip: chill the bowl and the whisk too
• Spoon or pipe into brandy snap cups and eat immediately or the brandy snaps will start to dissolve. 

Thanks for joining me on this biscuit journey, an stay tuned for Alain and Harry's biscuits in posts to come. <3