Valentine shortbreads (gluten free, lactose free)

If truth be told my fiancé and I do not like the commercialism of valentines day, I can think of nothing more awkward than being in a restaurant on valentines evening. I would not say I am anti valentines, I believe in showing someone you love them, I just don't think I need a set time and day to do that, and nor do I need people cashing in on our love. Still I know many people love it, each to their own, and if it makes you happy that's fabulous.

I made these biscuits however for two reasons. One I won a bake off at work and one of my prizes was this cute letter stamp set from Lakeland. With valentines a few days away I decided shortbread lovehearts could be quite cute. Secondly the letter for this months alpha bakes is V. So that was sorted, a Valentines bake.

Oh there is a third reason to make these, they are yummy. Vanilla shortbread sandwiched with lemon or chocolate buttercream. As you know if you handle regular shortbread to much it becomes tough, this is the caused by the gluten in the flour, The best thing about using gluten free flour is that the gluten is not there, which means that you can re-roll the scraps of this dough until they are all used up and no tough biscuits occur. Actually they are fantastically short, I think they are better than shortbread I made with wheat flour, hurrah! I have used lactose free butter for that buttery taste, If anyone uses a completely dairy free spread to make shortbread I would love to know how they turn out.

You could make these biscuits in any shape you like, not just hearts, and you do not have to stamp them if you do not have stamps, they will still taste delicious.

Vanilla shortbread 

200g lactose free spread
100g caster sugar
tsp vanilla extract/paste
275g GF plain flour
1/2 tsp xantham gum

For the buttercream

50g lactose free spread
150g icing sugar
splash of diary free milk if needed
Tablespoon of cocoa powder
zest of a lemon


Beat the spread, sugar and vanilla paste together until combined and creamy, then fold in the the flour ans xantham gum. It will initially look like you have way too much flour but be patient all will be fine. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Line the baking sheets with baking parchment. Roll out the dough between two sheets of clingfilm until 5mm thick, stamp out shapes of your choosing and transfer them to the parchment lined baking sheet. Transfer the baking trays to the fridge for 15 minutes. While the cut out biscuits are chilling preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN/ gas mark 4.

Bake the biscuits for 20 minutes until lightly golden. Leave to cool briefly on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the buttercream beat the sugar and spread together until light and creamy, if it need a little help to come together add the tiniest splash of dairy free milk. I then split the buttercream in half. To one half I added the lemon zest and to the other I added the cocoa powder which I had made into a paste with a tablespoon of boiling water.

Once the biscuits are cool sandwich together with the buttercream. I only sandwich a few together at a time. I keep the unsandwiched biscuits in the tin and the buttercream covered in the fridge. I then sandwich biscuits as and when I need them. This way the biscuits stay beautifully crisp.

Ginger, lemon and honey biscuits (gluten free, dairy free)

I promised you a post for apple butter victoria sponge, and was all set to do so until I woke up with a cold. I can't complain too much, it is the 2nd November and my first cold this year so I have done pretty well. My head is fuzzy and I know I will miss something out of the relatively simple but multi stage apple butter blog post. Soon I promise you, soon. 

Instead I offer you a simple recipe for ginger, honey and lemon biscuits. I like to think of these as the perfect healing biscuits if you have a cold. After all honey, lemon and ginger all feature heavily in commerical cold remidies.  And if you don't have a cold? They are still delicious little biscuits to nibble whenever you wish. 

The recipe is based on one for ginger and lemon biscuits by Signe Johansen in Scandilicous baking. As they contain honey I am going to enter them into this months alpha bakes.

Ginger lemon and honey biscuits

50g stem ginger

1 medium egg

20g golden syrup

20g honey

10g stem ginger syrup (from the jar the stem ginger comes in)

zest and juice of 1 lemon

125g non dairy spread (I used pure soya)

125g golden caster sugar

200g GF plain four

1/2 tsp xantham gum

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Finely chop the stem ginger, add to a jug and mix in the egg, golden syrup, honey, stem ginger syrup and the zest and juice the lemon. 

In a separate bowl cream the DF spread and sugar together until creamy. Add in half the wet ingredients, 1/2 the flour and the xantham gum, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda then mix to combine. Add the remaining wet ingredients and mix, finally add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until everything is combined. Place clingfilm over the bowl and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Place teaspoons full of the dough onto the sheet, making sure to leave 4-5cm between them. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, until golden round the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

I really like these biscuits, they are light, not heavy and crunchy like regular ginger biscuits (which I also love) and the lemon adds a freshness to the ginger. They will keep in an airtight tin for at least a week. If they start to go soft blast them in the oven for a couple of minutes to crisp them up.  

 

Pecorino biscuits

Hi, prepare for a few bake off posts in a row, I had planned to bake along with the bake off and of course as soon as it came on TV I went off to do volunteer work. I am catching up over the weekend and should be back on track by the episode on Wednesday.

I decided to make savoury biscuits for biscuit week, I have already made Florentines and to be honest did not have time to make a 3D creation, why you ask? because I HANDED MY THESIS IN!!! Anyway I genuinely liked the sound of a savoury nibble.

As an added bonus I used pecorino and pumpkin seeds and so I will enter these into this months alpha bakes.

These are gluten free and lactose free, I used lactose free pecorino, if lactose is your issue these are fab but not suitable for other dairy allergy sufferers. If you do not have an issue with gluten feel free to use plain flour and they will work perfectly too.

Pecorino rounds

50g GF plain flour
pinch of cayenne pepper
15g semolina
50g DF spread (I use pure)
50g pecorino cheese, grated
1 medium egg yolk
1 tsp olive oil

1 egg yolk
15g pecorino cheese grated
pumpkin seeds
pinch of cayenne

Put the flour, cayenne pepper and semolina into a bowl and mix. Rub the spread with your finger tips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Dairy free spread is softer than butter so work quickly and don't worry that your 'breadcrumbs' are large. Stir in the 50g of cheese using a metal spoon. Briefly beat the egg and then add the egg and olive oil to the dry ingredients and bring together into a dough using a metal knife and cutting motion. Form the dough into a fat disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN/GAS MARK 4 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the chilled dough to a thickness of 3mm. Cut out small rounds and place them on the prepared sheet. Push remaining dough together, re roll and cut more biscuits.

Brush the biscuits with a little beaten egg, sprinkle over the 15g of cheese, place a couple of pumpkin seeds on top and add a small dusting of cayenne pepper. Bake for 8-12 minutes until golden, transfer to a wire rack to cool a little before consuming.

We had these warm with a glass of prosecco before a light evening meal and they were delicious, we also had the leftovers later that evening, cold but still delicious... I therefore have no idea how well they keep!

Halloween biscuits

Life is slowly getting calmer and finally I have time to get back to baking.

First up are some halloween biscuits. I do not really do anything for halloween but perusing blogs and pinterest I have seen some fantastic creations that inspired me to bake a goulish creation for my workmates.

There were two issues, I had time but not a whole lot of it so nothing that would take hours of elaborate decorating. That lead to the second issue, I am not very artistic and have never worked with fondant in my life. Besides which I do not really like fondant icing. So something not too time consuming, halloween-y and tasty. Quite the challenge (for me at least!)

Rooting through the cupboards I realised I had all the ingredients for ginger biscuits, an excellent start, I love ginger biscuits. Further rooting found a gingerbread man cutter, a couple of gel food colourings, and icing sugar. All the components needed for spooky happenings I think.

I decided to make half zombies and half skeltons, this was for two reasons 1) I did not know which one I wanted to make more and 2) I did not know if I could do skeletons and figured if I was really bad they too could be turned into zombies

Gingerbread men

makes ~16 depending on cutter size

125g butter
100g golden syrup
50 grams light brown sugar
50g dark brown sugar
300g plain flour
tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 good tsps ground ginger
1/2 tsp of cinamon

Grease a couple of baking sheets and preheat the oven to 200C/180C FAN. Put the butter, syrup and sugars into a pan and warm gently until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved. 

Mix the dry ingredients in large bowl then stir in the wet ingredients until all the ingredients are incorporated. 

Place a piece of baking parchment on a work top and dust with flour. Roll out the dough to 1/2cm thick and stamp out gingerbread men. Re-roll the trimmings to get more men.

For those gingerbread men doomed to be zombies pull off an arm or a leg. Yes pull. A knife leaves too clean an edge. 

Place the men on the prepared and baking sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden. Transfer the gingerbread men on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Skeletons

For the skeletons I made up a simple icing using icing sugar and water. I made it very thick but smooth. I put it into a freezer bag then snipped of the tiniest corner. I then piped my bones onto the skeletons. The scariest thing about these skeletons is their bone anatomy! There are lots of pictures online from very simple to very complex, I plumped somewhere in the middle.

Zombies

I used red gel food colouring and dabbed around the missing limb, dark at the edge, smudging to a lighter stain as I moved further away.

Similar to the white icing for the skeletons I made a red icing and did various eyes and mouths on the zombies. Either crosses for eyes, or angry diagonal slits. Mouths were zig zag teeth or open holes. I added a few scars to each zombie in icing too. Finally I took my green food colouring and  made my zombies look more rotting and dead by dabbing and smudging it around limbs and edges of the zombies.

Warning these are very crunchy biscuits, if you like your biscuits softer these are perhaps not for you.

Florentines

The letter for this months alpha bakes is F. I had a few ideas, none of which were initially florentines. However whilst flicking through John Whaites book I saw his version and realised a) I have never made one and b) I have never eaten one.

So florentines it was. I did change his recipe a little so have my version below.

Florentines

makes ~15

60g butter
50g light brown sugar
15g golden syrup
50g sultanas, chop any big ones
30g dried apricot, roughly chopped
100g salted peanuts, roughly chopped
25g plain flour
50g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and line two/three baking sheets with baking parchment.

Mix the dried fruit, nuts and flour in a bowl. Gently melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup, when fully melted tip into the dry ingredients and stir until fully combined.

Drop heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes until golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheets.

Once cool they can be peeled from the baking paper. Melt the chocolate and drizzle over the florentines.

These were pretty simple to make, I have a few different sizes, clearly I did not heap my teaspoon very evenly!

My first ever florentine did taste pretty good. Personally I think I would prefer my fruit, nuts and chocolate in an actual cookie but that is personal preference I guess.

Robiols

So what are robiols? They are a Mallorcan dessert, traditionally eaten at Christmas and Easter. How do I know about them?  A friend at work, originally from mallorca, baked some and bought them in. They are a filled biscuit that looks a lot like cornish pasty. I immediately asked for the recipe.

I did get a recipe, except it was limited to a list of ingredients. So feeling a little like one of the bake off contestants in their technical challenge. I set about making the biscuits based on a picture and my baking knowledge.

The result is amazing. The biscuit itself is crumbly and short, which surprised me a little considering the dough gets worked much more than a conventional shortbread. Maybe its the oil in it.

For the filling I used nutella. Though in Mallorca the filling varies, fruit paste, sweet cheese etc.

Robiols

makes 24-26

75g butter
75g caster sugar
egg yolk
25ml olive oil
25ml milk
juice of 1/2 orange
250g plain flour
nutella

Cream the butter ad sugar together. Add the egg yolk ,olive oil, milk and orange juice, mix until combined. Add the flour and bring together the ingredients to form a dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 175C/155C FAN and grease a baking sheet with butter. Flour a work surface and roll out the dough, depending on the size of your work surface you may have to do this in two batches. 

Once the dough is very thin cut out circles, using a cookie cutter, I used one 3 inches in diameter. The trimmings can be rerolled and cut out too.

Place a teaspoon of nutella on one half the circle.

Fold in half and crimp the edges with a fork.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

These delicious beauties begin with R so I am going to send them to this months alpha bakes. This month hosted by Ros at the more than occasional baker.

Chocolate truffle biscuits

These little beauties are the first thing that I have made from the Hummingbird bakery book, Home Sweet Home.

The book has a delicious looking array of treats. This particular weekend I really wanted to bake from it, my birthday was at the end of March and I could not believe I had not got round to anything from it, I have been so busy. Being immensely busy however meant I barely had the energy to turn the oven on, let alone do justice to some of the delightful looking bakes in this book. I settled on these biscuits as they looked easy, yummy and I had all the ingredients in. Well kind of. I substituted amaretto for almond extract and brandy!

These are one of those bakes that are better than expected. I like chocolate, I like biscuits, so I fully expected to like these. I did not realise they would be so good. They really do have that truffle-y flavour in biscuit form. They have an intense flavour and two of these beauties with a cup of tea really do satisfy chocolate cravings after a day at work. Yum.

Chocolate truffle biscuits

makes 14

80g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
85g golden caster sugar
25g butter
1 large egg
10ml amaretto, or a tsp of almond extract, or a combination of almond extract and brandy
icing sugar, for rolling

In a bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and sugar. Rub in the butter until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. 

Mix the egg and amaretto (or substitute) together and add to the dry ingredients. Mix until all the ingredients come together into a uniform dough. This takes a couple of minutes but keep at it, I promise you will get there. 

Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes.

Line a baking sheet or two with baking paper and preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. 

Split the dough into 14 equal pieces and roll into balls. Roll the balls in the icing sugar to coat them and place onto the baking tray, leaving at least an inch between them as they will flatten slightly as they bake.

Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Allow the biscuits to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

These biscuits keep well for a few days in an airtight tin. Not sure if it is just me but I think the flavour of the brandy is developing more and more each day.

Almond bakewell cookies

I enjoy reading the alpha bakes round up each month and often get inspiration from it. This month I high-tailed it straight over to Liv a little bakery after seeing her almond cookies.

They looked amazing. I made them a day later. I did not change the recipe apart from to add a handful of chopped glace cherries and omit the cinnamon. Oh and I made 24 instead of 12, as no matter how big the cookie I will ALWAYS go back for a second, and so at least if I make them a little smaller it is not so bad. The recipe can be found here.

These cookies are delightful. The texture is light with a slight chew in the centre and the flavour is just the right amount of almond. They are lovely with a cup of tea, be warned they will not last long, even if you do decide to make them smaller!

Jammy dodgers

The jammy dodger. A childhood classic. I like them if the biscuit is crisp and the jam chewy. I do not like slightly soft biscuit an mushy jam, it all gets a bit claggy

The homemade jammy dodger is a delicious thing. The biscuit is short and buttery and I like using a sharp raspberry jam, though of course traditional strawberry would work.

The ground almonds add a nice textural dimension to the biscuit as well as a subtle flavour. These biscuits are yum the day they are made but also remain good the day after, The second day the jam fuses to the biscuit slightly but the texture still remains crisp and distinctly non claggy, hurrah!

Jammy dodgers

makes ~15 depending on size

110g butter
45g golden caster sugar
100g plain flour
50g ground almonds
1/2 tsp vanilla paste/extract
80g raspberry jam (or other flavour)

Get ready a non stick sheet, if you are a little dubious about its non stick capabilities the grease it lightly with butter.

Put all the ingredients, except the jam, in a food processor and pulse until a dough starts to come together.

Remove the dough, using your hands to lightly bring it together. Shape into a flattish disk, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes to an hour. 

Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough out to ~1/2 cm thick. Stamp out rounds and and equal number of rounds with a hole removed, or any shape of your choice. I did re-roll my trimmings once but I did not want to roll out the dough more than that.

Place the cut out biscuits onto the baking sheet and chill for 15-30 minutes. This will help stop the biscuits spreading as they cook. Preheat the oven to 140C/120C FAN.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, rotating the sheet(s) half way through for an equal bake.

Leave to cool for ~ 1 minute on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Soften the jam by giving it a stir. Use the softened jam to sandwich together the biscuits. 

They are best left to set up a little before eating. This of course did not stop me inhaling one immediately... 

Marbled chocolate cheesecake biscuits

Sadly one of my last chocolate bakes before lent starts I think. Though I may be able to sneak one more in on Sunday if I put my mind to it!

The reason I call these cheesecake biscuits and not mini cheesecakes is that I believe my recipe has a typo somewhere. The ratio of base to filling is definitely askew. There seems to be lots of base compared to filling and in the end I did not use all the base mix that I made.  I have altered the recipe to account for how much base I did use. In my final version base to filling is 50/50, hence the name.

Saying that they are absolutely delicious and actually I quite like them like this, a cheesecakey biscuit to have with a cup of tea instead of a full on dessert. The recipe below is for the cheesecake biscuits. If you wanted to make mini cheesecakes I would simply suggest doubling the filling recipe. Keep the base recipe the same as below (the original really was too much).

Marbled chocolate cheesecake biscuits

(makes 8) 

You will need a mini cheesecake tin, mini victoria sandwich tin or similar with loose bottoms.

For the base

75g digestives
30g butter

For the topping

75g cream cheese, room temperature
100g caster sugar
seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
1 medium egg, beaten
35g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Gently warm the butter until it is just melted. Meanwhile pop the biscuits in a bowl and bash with the end of a rolling pin until breadcrumb like. Pour the butter over the biscuit crumbs and combine well. Press the base into the the bottom of the tin. The filling will only make about 8 so it is possible you will not need all the holes in the tin. 

Bake the base in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Check after 10, nobody wants burnt biscuit base. 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. 

Reset the oven to 160C/140C FAN. To make the filling, use a wooden spoon to beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla seeds together until smooth. Add the egg slowly, using the wooden spoon to combine well. 

Spoon the filling over the cooled bases. Reserve about a table spoon of the filling. Melt the chocolate with a tablespoon of water in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. When melted and smooth add to the reserved filling, It needs to be at a drizzling consistency so in all likelihood you will have to let the chocolate mix down with hot water to get to this stage, Just add a little at a time until it drizzles nicely. 

Drizzle the chocolate in a zig zag or blobs, however you wish, over the filling. use the handle of a teaspoon to lightly marble, don't go to mad or the pattern will be lost.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until the edges puff up but the middle is still a little soft. Leave to cool and then put in the fridge for at least two hours before eating. Gently loosen the edges with a knife and gently push on the base to release the cheesecake.

Orange tuile biscuits

Hello, hope everybody had a fantastic Christmas! Do you still have lots of festivities planned? Maybe a dinner party or elegant NYE dinner? If so these little tuile biscuits will go down a treat with an elegant dessert not to mention impress your guests.

Orange tuile biscuits

makes ~28

2 egg whites
125g caster sugar
75g butter
zest of 2 oranges
75g plain flour

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN. Gently warm the butter until it has melted. Grate in the orange zest and set aside to cool.

Whisk the egg whites with half the sugar until soft peaks form. Continue whisking and gradually add the remaining sugar, whisk until firm peaks form. Whisk in the cooled melted butter. Gently fold in the flour.

Place a heaped teaspoon of the mix onto a non stick or well greased baking sheet and, using the back of a spoon, spread into a circle about 10cm in diameter. The circle will be very thin. I would do no more than four per sheet and make sure that they are spaced well apart.

Bake in the oven for 6 to 8 minutes until they a golden brown around the edges, watch the like a hawk, they will burn very quickly

When done remove from the oven. Working quickly remove them from the baking sheet, using a palette knife, and mould around a rolling pin. Repeat for all the biscuits.

If the last ones firm up before they are removed pop the sheet back in the oven for 30 seconds to soften them.

When they are firm, it will only take a minute, remove from the rolling pin and place on a wire rack to cool. Best eaten the day they are made, for maximum crunch, but they can be stored in an airtight container.

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Spicy peacekeeper cookies

This month we get a bumper two books for the cupcake book club. 'Meet me at the Cupcake Cafe' and Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe, both by Jenny Colgan.

I plan to make something from both books. These are from the Christmas book and made at the special request of my boyfriend. He loves this sort of biscuit and as soon as he knew about them they had to be made! To be fair I like this sort of biscuit too, and I have dates left over from making Christmas cakes which need using. Still have plenty left though so need to put my thinking cap on to use them up!

I have adapted the recipe only ever so slightly. I am not convinced that 14g of walnuts is right, it may be a typo and I have taken it to actually be 145g. Whether I am right or not remains to be seen.

Peacekeeper spice cookies (adapted from Jenny Colgan, Christmas at the cupcake Cafe)

makes 34

110g butter

100g light brown sugar

118g treacle

egg yolk

tablespoon soured cream

375g plain flour

tablespoon baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

tsp ginger

tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp mixed spice

50g raisins or sultanas

50g walnuts, roughly chopped

50g dried dates, roughly chopped

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the treacle, egg yolk and soured cream and mix until well incorporated. 

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spices. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing well after each addition.

Finally add the dried fruits and nuts and blend well. 

Chill the dough for 1/2 hour to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN and grease baking sheets, I did not grease mine but I know that it is very super non stick. 

Roll out the dough ~1cm thick and stamp out rounds.

This dough rolls beautifully!

 Cook for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden.  Using a palette knife transfer the biscuits to a wire rack and allow to cool fully.

Wow, I halved the recipe and still have ended up with 34 biscuits! Its a good job that they are delicious. They are spicy and light with lovely textures from the fruit. These would definitely cheer anyone up and keep the peace.

So many cookies!