Jumbles (GBBO Technical Challenge)

By: Pete on 08:03:00

Slightly dissapointed it wasn't the pies, I love a good hot water crust pie! However, biscuits it is. I've actually got a recipe for Jumbles in a book somewhere, but have not made them before. I'm pretty sure that the knots are not a normal part of the deal (the name "Jumble" implying that you just throw the ropes of dough down). I once again dug up a recipe, as while I can do a biscuit dough, I didn't know the level of spicing in these (I knew they had carraway, as it's a flavour I've used before...it's acquired)

I'm quite happy with the double-knots (I used a length of rope to practice). The Celtic Knots are a royal PITA. To save you looking it up, they are made in 2 parts...a Celtic trinity knot, with a circle over-laid (or, if you want to be cocky, interlaced). The main problem was that the dough is quite soft, even after chilling, so getting it to hold a shape was very hard.

For the spices, I weighed them out (rather than teaspoon measures). I couldn't find ground aniseed anywhere (well, in the 3 places I looked), so I ended up using star anise, which I ground up.

Jumbles - Recipe

Ingredients

• 375g plain flour
• 4g carraway seeds
• 2g of star anise
• 2g ground mace
• 60g chilled butter
• 150g caster sugar
• Zest of 1 large lemon
• 3 eggs

To decorate

• 1 beaten egg
• Caster Sugar

1) Grind the carraway and star anise in a pestle and mortar, and grind to a fine powder (I don't have a pestle and mortar, so resorted to a ramekin and rolling pin end!)

2) Sieve the flour, carraway, star anise, mace together into a bowl

3) Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs

4) Stir in the sugar and lemon zest

5) Stir in the eggs, and mix until you have a soft (probably sticky) dough

6) Form 6 balls of 65g, and 4 balls of 85g. Place these on a baking sheet, cover them in cling-film, and place them in the oven for 30 minutes (this will make it firm enough to handle)

Pre-heat oven to 160'C
Line 2 large baking sheets with baking parchment

7) With each of the 65g balls, roll out into a rope 30cm long

8) Form a double-knot. Actually quite simple, there is a good guide here that I used. Place them on one of the baking trays

9) With the 85g balls, split into 2, with one part being ¼ of the total. Roll the larger part into a long sausage, and form a Celtic trinity knot. Again, some good photos here. Use the smaller part to form a circle, and gently press this on top. Place these on the other baking tray (they take longer)

10) Brush the biscuits with beaten egg, and sprinkle caster sugar over them

11) Bake in the oven. The double-knots need about 20-25 minutes, the Celtic Knots 15-20 minutes. The dough doesn't brown much, but the egg/sugar glaze will.

12) Remove to a wire rack to cool