Twice Cooked

Ok, so I know the last time I made biscuits it didn't quite go as planned, but as I'm not the sort of person who gives up on things easily, I thought I'd give them another go. Plus, I bought my Mum this cute little biscuit recipe book and stamp to go with it for her birthday and secretly I really wanted to give them a go for myself! And with the recipe being in French, it reminded me of being in France!

Seeing as I'm home, it's the perfect time to do some baking with my Mum and it also meant I could have a go at using our wonderful oven (sorry if the oven saga is getting a bit tiresome now...I will shut up about it soon, promise!). And it did cook the biscuits to perfection, even if I do say so myself! I chose some lemon ones which were crunchy and crisp, just like a biscuit should be. They weren't too lemony either, but the lemon curd in the middle just gave them that extra kick they needed. And I think the stamp makes them look quite professional. This time I can safely say that the biscuits were a success and I will definitely be trying them again, but perhaps with an alternative flavour. So I CAN make biscuits. And I CAN blame my stupid French oven for their lack of success last time. Give them a go. They're really easy to make and perfect for satisfying that sweet craving we all get from time to time. And of course, I don't really need to say it, but they go perfectly with a nice cup of (English) tea!

Biscuits au citron    makes about 12 biscuits

Ingredients:

1 Lemon

80g Butter

120g Sugar

1 Egg

180g Plain Flour

I Jar Lemon Curd

Icing Sugar (for decoration)

Method:

1. Grate the zest of a lemon.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mxing bowl.
3. When the sugar is incorporated add the egg and lemon zest and mix again.
4. Gradually add the flour, a little at a time, whilst mixing.
5. It should all come together to form a dough.
6. Leave the dough to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
7. Preheat the (fan!) oven to 180 degrees.
8. Cover a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
9. On a floured surface roll out the dough so it is about 4-5mm in thickness.
10. Cut out circles from the dough using a glass about 5cm in diameter - you should get about 24.
11. If you have a stamp, now is the time to stamp half of the circles!
12. Place all the circles on the baking sheet and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
13. Leave to cool on a cooling tray.
14. Spread half of the biscuits with lemon curd and sandwich together with their other half.
15. Enjoy as quickly as possible before they're all eaten!

Extremely accurate scales that I have the pleasure of using when I'm at home! I must invest in some for next year.

The oven in action!!

By the way, if you're wondering what the title is all about, it's another language reference! I'm sure many of you may know this already, but the word biscuit actually comes from the French language and litterally translates as 'twice cooked' because originally there were two parts to the cooking process of biscuits - apparently first they were baked and then dried out in a slow oven. So there's a little interesting useless fact for you all! Of course, the main thing is we all like a good biscuit and it doesn't matter how they're cooked as long as they taste good!

Biscuit (not so)Beauties

Biscuit-making isn't usually my thing. I tend to stick to cakes or pastry. I think it's because if I'm baking I want it to be something extra special and for me, that's not normally a biscuit. However, there seems to be lots of little biscuits sold in the boulangeries round here that look quite delicious, so I guess I've been inspired! And of course, a biscuit is the perfect sidekick to a cup of tea.... 

French Jammie Dodgers

Technically, they're actually French sablés but it's more fun to call them Jammie Dodgers and they look just like them! As I've said, I don't normally make biscuits and, after making these, I remember why... I can't say this has been my most successful baking experience of all time, but then I guess not everything works out how you've planned it! The actual biscuits themselves (minus the burnt ones thanks to my silly oven! How I can't wait to get home and use a decent oven again...) had the perfect texture actually. That's probably because icing sugar is used instead of bog-standard caster, and does make a really short biscuit. Plus, the egg yolks make them very rich. Where I went wrong was misreading the recipe which I've just realised now! Gosh, I am stupid. I skipped out the step where you bake the biscuits first before adding the jam and for some reason, decided to just add the jam and bake straight away! I'll know for next time anyway. This just proves that it is extremely important to read recipes very carefully otherwise they can go very wrong (this is mainly a note to me rather than you!). Oh, I also tried putting Nutella in a few of them (I told you I have an obsession with it!) but of course, this didn't work at all because it went in the oven and just burnt because they had to be in so long. If you follow the recipe correctly though, I'm sure it would work! Having said all that, they don't look bad in the photos and they were definitely edible! Give them a go, if I haven't put you off yet!!

Sablés makes about 20

Ingredients:
 
250g plain flour
200g butter
100g icing sugar
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
8tbsp of jam of your choice

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and grease a baking tray.
2. Put the flour, butter, sugar and salt in a bowl and rub together with fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. And egg yolks and mix until a dough forms.
4. Roll out onto a floured surface to a thickness of about 0.5cm.
5. Cut out shapes (roughly 4cm in diameter) and cut out a hole in the middle of half of them (roughly 2cm in diameter).
6. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until a light golden brown.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
8. Place a small dollop of jam on a whole sablé and place one with a hole on top.
9. Repeat for each pair.
10. Enjoy with a cuppa!

I will definitely try this recipe again...when I have learnt to read the recipe properly and I'll let you know how they turn out! In the mean time, I think I'll just go to my local boulangerie and buy some proper sablés from there - I might be more impressed.

Lemon Shortbread

Now for something a little more English. Shortbread. Although again, I'm a little bit disappointed with how these have turned out. When I was little, there were a few certain cafés that we went to and I always used to have the same thing at each one for some reason...don't ask me why! Anyway, the Canal Gardens Café in Roundhay, Leeds, was shortbread. And it was good shortbread. Crumbly and buttery - all the right sort of flavours and textures shortbread should be. They served it on one of those paper doilies and it was a triangle from a big circular shortbread that had been cut out. It's funny the things you remember from your childhood! Anyway, I wanted to try and recreate it, but with a slight variation as it's flavoured with lemon. Not too strong either so it doesn't take away that wonderful buttery taste. However, the texture's just not quite right. I'm not sure why. I found it really hard to get the dough together as there's no liquid ingredient (which is normal for shortbread), so maybe the quantities weren't quite accurate enough. But again, I'm going to blame it on my silly oven instead of me, because I never know whether it's got to the right temperature or if I need to leave things in for longer. It's probably just me not having the knack for making biscuits, but I can always pretend... I'd give them a go though, because it hardly needs any ingredients and I'm sure you'll have better luck than me! Perhaps I'll leave biscuits alone for now...

Lemon Shortbread makes about 12 'slices'

Ingredients:
250g plain flour
175g butter
75g caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon


Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease a baking tray.
2. Place flour and butter into a bowl and run together with fingertips until the mixture ressembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Stir in the sugar and lemon zest.
4. Gather together into a dough (it doesn't look like it will, but it will eventually!).
5. Press dough into baking tray so it is just under 1cm in thickness and cut lines into dough in desired shapes.
6. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
7. Allow to cool then remove from baking tray and enjoy! 

I'm glad I experiemented with biscuits, but I don't think I'll be making them again in a hurry! Far too much hassle for what it's worth in my opinion. But by all means, don't let me put you off. You'll probably have better luck than me. And don't get me wrong - I do love eating biscuits! (I've just eaten about three in one sitting and these are very rich biscuits). I think I'll stick to cakes and other sweet treats in the future though!