Baking Biscuits

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I have a very simple recipe for some simple biscuits. The recipe is based around a single egg.

Ingredients

One egg
Same weight of cold cubed butter and caster sugar
Twice the weight of plain flour

Rub the flour and butter into breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar and then add the egg to bind the mixture into a dough.

The mixture should come into a dough quite easily.

I then form the dough into a large sausage shaped roll, about 3-4 cm in diameter. I then wrapped the dough in cling film and placed in the fridge for an hour or so. This is to firm up the dough and make it easier to manage when slicing into biscuit shapes.

Removing the dough from the fridge, I sliced it into rounds which are then placed onto a baking tray. Now you can placed them onto a greased tray, but I usually use baking parchment. One tip I picked up from Jamie Oliver was after cutting the parchment was to screw it up into a ball and then flatten the screwed up parchment. What this does is make it much easier to line the baking tray, otherwise the parchment as a tendency to roll back into a roll.

These are then baked in a moderate oven for about 10-12 minutes until film. I prefer my biscuits just cooked, not browned, so they have a softer crumbly texture. If you prefer a crisper biscuit then bake for a little longer.

Once baked, remove the tray of biscuits from the oven and place on a cooling rack.

Once cooled, you can then ice the biscuits or cover them in chocolate.

What is it with these Caramalised Biscuits?

As you know I do like my coffee, and often I will just have coffee, but now and again served with the coffee (as a freebie) is a little something. I have had little squares of dark chocolate before, but the usual is a biscuit. And the usual biscuit is one of those individually wrapped caramalised biscuits!

And aren’t they awful? I really don’t like them, the taste, the texture, nope not very nice at all.

Okay should I be grumbling about the fact that I got a free biscuit? Well it isn’t free, I paid for the coffee so I am in fact paying for the whole coffee drinking experience and if that as part of that experience I am paying for, the coffee shop deems it necessary that I have a complementary biscuit, than I think I can say I am paying for it.

It’s not the fact it’s a free biscuit, it’s just that I never have a choice about my biscuit and it would appear that every coffee shop that gives out free biscuits gives out these caramalised biscuits. Where is the imagination? Where are the fresh ideas?

It’s as though they said, oh look out competitor is giving away free caramalised biscuits, we better give away free caramalised biscuits. Where was the imaginative business idea about maybe choosing something slightly different? Something fresh and interesting? No we all have to have that same caramalised biscuit?

Where are the little squares of caramel shortcake? I like those. Where are the little strawberry pavalova? What about a piece of fruit?

At the end of the day this is much more about the coffee and I am guessing that people think the caramlised biscuit complements the coffee. Personally I like my coffee and if you want to give me a biscuit, give me a choice.

By the way if you do in fact like them, you can buy them in bulk from Amazon…. order them now and then you can have one every time you make coffee at home!

Tunnocks Teacakes

YumYou know when you shouldn’t but you still do. Well it’s like that for me and Tunnocks.

Whether it be Chocolate Caramel Wafers or as it was tonight with a Teacake, there is something very nice, but also guilty about eating these very sweet delights.

The Teacake is a crumbly biscuit, covered in marshmallow and covered in a thin layer of milk chocolate. No matter how careful you are crumbs and flakes of chocolate drop over you.

Tasty, yet not quite delicious.

Biscuits

Do you like biscuits?

I do and I don’t.

At this time I have really gone off eating biscuits, especially commercially made biscuits.

When it comes to home made or “crafted” biscuits I am okay, but they are not something I would go out of my way to buy and eat.

Probably just a phase.

The biscuit in the photograph was from the Sky Tower in Auckland in New Zealand. It was rather nice.

Tunnocks

Every so often, usually about once a year, I have a craving for a Tunnocks chocolate covered caramel wafer biscuit.

Available in packs of four from most supermarkets, unlike a lot of other things I crave, I am never disappointed.

I eat the four wafer biscuits, if I am good over a week, or if I am silly on one evening!

I do enjoy them, but then that is that. No more for another year.

Border Biscuits

I originally had these biscuits when I would make business visits to Scotland, so am always pleased when I can find them south of the border.

These are some of my favourite biscuits, they are perfectly cooked, extremely buttery and melt in the mouth like they ought to.

I have decided that though somewhat expensive, I rather have a singler Border biscuit over a whole packet of other (more popular) branded biscuits.

Border Biscuits.

Milk or Plain?

So which do you prefer milk chocolate or plain chocolate digestive biscuits?

I haven’t had any for ages and guess what I bought the ones I prefer less.

I much prefer the plain chocolate digestives.

Which do you prefer?

Border Biscuits

I originally had these biscuits when I would make business visits to Scotland, so am always pleased when I can find them south of the border.

These are some of my favourite biscuits, they are perfectly cooked, extremely buttery and melt in the mouth like they ought to

Border Biscuits.