Last nights lesson was "read the recipe". I was going to be doing a sausage plait, however I'd failed to read the step "rest for 7 hours"...so I'll start that one on Friday night I think ,and finish it on Saturday.
Instead, I skimmed through some recipe books, and settled on some biscuits from Mary Berry's Baking Bible (yet another birthday/Christmas present). It was a fairly quick method (and I had all the ingredients to hand), and they came out well without any resting (I squeezed 29 biscuits out of the batch). It was also another chance to use the rolling batons (which really do make it very quick to roll out dough). I was really surprised at how much lemon flavour comes through from just the rind, I normally assume you have to get the juice in there...
1) Put the butter and sugar in a stand mixer, and beat until light and fluffy (you'll probably need to scrape the sides down with a spatula)
2) Add in the egg yolk, and beat well
3) Add in the flour and lemon zest, and mix well.
4) Swap out the mixing head for a dough hook
5) Add a splash of milk while the mixer is working, and allow a soft dough to form (I needed about 20ml of milk)
6) You'll probably need to fully form the dough by hand
7) On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 5mm thickness (I used rolling batons)
8) Use a 60mm cutter to cut out the biscuits, placing them on a baking tray spaced out.
9) Re-roll the trimmings to get more biscuits (I got 29 in total, with virtually no dough left)
10) Bake in the oven for 8-9 minutes
11) Lightly beat the egg white
12) Remove the biscuits from the oven and brush with the beaten egg white
13) Sprinkle caster sugar on the biscuits
14) Return to the oven for 5 minutes (if you have a hot side to your oven, take this opportunity to rotate the trays, to get a more even bake)
15) Remove from the oven, and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Shrewsbury Biscuits - Recipe
- Pre-heat oven to 175-180'C
Ingredients
- 100g softened butter
- 75g caster sugar (+ some more for sprinkling on top)
- 1 egg, separated
- 200g plain flour, sifted
- Grated rind of 1 lemon
- 50g currants
- Splash of milk
2) Add in the egg yolk, and beat well
3) Add in the flour and lemon zest, and mix well.
4) Swap out the mixing head for a dough hook
5) Add a splash of milk while the mixer is working, and allow a soft dough to form (I needed about 20ml of milk)
6) You'll probably need to fully form the dough by hand
7) On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 5mm thickness (I used rolling batons)
8) Use a 60mm cutter to cut out the biscuits, placing them on a baking tray spaced out.
9) Re-roll the trimmings to get more biscuits (I got 29 in total, with virtually no dough left)
10) Bake in the oven for 8-9 minutes
11) Lightly beat the egg white
13) Sprinkle caster sugar on the biscuits
14) Return to the oven for 5 minutes (if you have a hot side to your oven, take this opportunity to rotate the trays, to get a more even bake)
15) Remove from the oven, and transfer to a wire rack to cool.