Frohe Weihnachten! Part 1: Sandwich Biscuits

Frohe Weihnachten! I present to you the first part in a series on German-style Christmas biscuits!

Last year I planned on doing a whole series of German-inspired Christmas biscuits, but I never got the opportunity. So, this year I'm gonna put that to rights! I'm kicking off the season of biscuits with a delicious selection of sandwiches.

This is just a show-and-tell because making biscuit sandwiches is something pretty much any home cook can make. You just choose your favourite buttery cut-out biscuit recipe, like shortbread or plain biscuits, make some tiny cut-outs, and fill them with some icing, ganache, caramel, or jam.

As you can see in this picture, I made a variety of shaped tiny biscuits: these are only about an inch (2½ centimetres) or so wide and about quarter of an inch (5 millimetres) thick, and I have hearts, fluted rounds, snowflakes (even though they look like stars), flowers, and bells. I made a small batch of biscuit mixture of 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar, 3 ounces (85 grammes) salted butter at room temperature, half a medium egg, and 6 ounces (170 grammes) plain white spelt flour. I flavoured it with vanilla essence and almond essence. This amount made about 48 biscuits, or 24 pairs. One pair was sacrificed to quality control before filling....

Each shape was supposed to have a different flavour of filling inside, but after a few biscuits that went out the window. I used chocolate buttercream, lemon curd buttercream, vanilla buttercream (using real vanilla pods), some Araquipe dulce de leche (yes, it's still leftover since my brother got back from Ecuador in August), and some good old fashioned strawberry jam.

After a little trip in the fridge, I dipped the tops of every flavour bar the caramel and jam ones in chocolate. I mixed a little sunflower oil into some white and dark chocolate, and some vanilla seeds into the white chocolate. Once I had dipped some of chocolate-filled ones in dark chocolate, and all the vanilla- and lemon filled ones in white chocolate, I marbled the remaining chocolates together to dip the remaining chocolate filled ones. I dusted the lemon ones with edible gold dust just for visual interest.

So there you have it! A special little treat for someone special in your life this Christmas, or even just for the table after dinner. Keep an eye out for the next few creations! :)

First Attempt at Whoopie Pies (Wheat Free with a Dairy Free Option)

 There is now a new and improved post about Whoopie Pies here.

Today, I present to you a recipe several months in the making! Behold my own take on the American classic, Whoopie Pies!

About two or three years ago, I got a new cookery book for my birthday, which is a typical gift for me. This book, simply entitled Whoopie Pies introduced me properly to a confection that I had only heard of by name once or twice. I tried a recipe or two from the book, but wasn't a hundred percent happy with how they turned out and, as such, the book is still gathering dust on my bookshelf. 

Then a few months ago I was watching a programme on Food Network, and I saw the cook make some chocolate whoopie pies. It had been quite some time since I had last tried them and I thought Heck, why not give them another go? Seeing as the cook described them as a "mixture between a cupcake and a sandwich cookie", that's the kind of approach I took: I tried merging my basic sponge cake recipe and my chocolate chip cookie recipe together, but the results were disappointingly flat and crispy.

The real breakthrough came when I merged my basic sponge recipe with a basic scone recipe, and replacing the butter with oil: it made a very fluid mixture that puffed up nicely, but didn't spread out too much during baking. The result is a cake that has all the fluffiness and sweetness of a sponge cake, but the sturdiness of a biscuit. However, I'll probably work on this recipe in the future, because I generally am not a fan of the fact that this only uses brown sugar: I don't want my plain vanilla whoopie pies to be brown!

These lovely little sandwiches go slightly sticky on the crust the longer they stay in storage, which is ideal: I have it on good, American authority that a whoopie pie should somewhat stick to your fingers. 

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

DIFFICULTY

Requires mixing and spooning out runny batter

TIME

About 2 hours

RECIPE RATING

Easy!

~~ ^ _ ^ ~~

INGREDIMENTS

For 12 to 14 sandwiches (24 to 28 total cakes)

8 ounces (225 grammes, 1.8 US cups) plain white spelt flour

2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) baking powder

¼ teaspoon (1 millilitre) salt

6 ounces (170 grammes, 1 US cup) brown sugar

4 fluid ounces (115 millilitres, ½ US cup) sunflower oil

1 medium (US large) egg

6 fluid ounces (170 millilitres, ¾ US cup) buttermilk, or plain soya yoghurt

1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence

About 1 pound (455 grammes) icing filling of your choice: butter cream, ganache, marshmallow fluff, etc.

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F, Gas Mk.3), and grease and flour two flat baking trays.
• In a large mixing bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Make a well in the centre.
• In a jug, beat together the buttermilk, egg, oil, and vanilla essence until smooth. Pour into the well in the dry ingredients then, using a balloon whisk or electric mixer, mix together until there are no streaks of flour and the mixture is smooth and consistent.
• Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture on the baking trays, about an inch (2 centimetres) apart, using the tip of the spoon to smooth the dollops into rounds. Tap the trays sharply on the work surface to flatten out the pies. I got about 6 on each tray.
• Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven when the pies spring back when touched lightly with a finger.
• Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring from the trays to wire cooling racks to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
• Pair the cakes together according to size, then sandwich together with about two tablespoons of filling. Set in the fridge for about half an hour before serving.

NOTES

• For chocolate whoopie pies: Replace an eighth of the flour with cocoa powder, and sieve in with the other dry ingredients.

• For red velvet whoopie pies: Replace a tablespoon (30 millilitres) of the flour with cocoa powder and sieve with the dry ingredients, and add red food colouring to the wet ingredients to get the shade you want.

• For pumpkin spice whoopie pies: Add in 1 or 2 tablespoons (15 or 30 millilitres) to taste of your favourite pumpkin spice or mixed spice blend, and sieve in with the other dry ingredients.

• For coffee whoopie pies: Add 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) of instant espresso powder, and sieve in with the other dry ingredients

THIS TIME IN 2017: Hot Cross Bunnies: a Cutesy Twist on a Traditional Favourite (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2016: Buttermilk Scones (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2015: April Afternoon Tea Party: Bollywood Part Two!

THIS TIME IN 2013: Black Forest Gâteau: a Retro Classic? (Wheat Free)

There was no blog on this day in 2014.

Happy Anniversary, My Wonderful Companion: Giant Angel Slice

Happy first anniversary to my dearest companion! You have been a rock and support to me in awful times, and a wonderful friend to enjoy the good times with, too!

In celebration, I made my companion his favourite kind of cake, although in much larger dimensions than usual: an Angel slice!

For those who don't know, and Angel slice is a Mr Kipling favourite: it's a sandwich cake, with a white and a pink layer, filled with a vanilla flavoured cream, and iced with white and pink fondant. Usually, you buy them in packets of four slices. The cake is super light and fluffy, like a fondant fancy, and the filling is sticky, sweet, cheap, and nasty.

As such, I made two 4x8 inch (10x20 centimetre) cakes using this recipe scaled up to two eggs—one left plain, one coloured with a hint of pink—and sandwiched them together with some vanilla flavoured buttercream, before topping it off with a simple fondant style icing of 8 parts icing sugar to 1 part melted butter, thinned to a nice fondant consistency with milk. I coloured some of it pink and drizzled it on the top.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the cake before he and I tucked into it as a naughty anniversary breakfast, but I did take a picture of what was left!

I also made a nice wall hanging of envelopes which I folded from fancy paper, each containing photographs commemorating each month of our first year, and pictures from the weekend when we first started dating. I was super pleased with it!

Here's to many more years with you, my dearest lovely.... ^_^ x

I've Finally Got It! French Macarons, with the help of Kawaii Sweet World (Gluten- and Dairy Free)

Et encore, une recette Française! Pour voutre plaisir, un dessert: macarons!

After about five years of off and on attempting, I have finally, finally managed to make a successful batch of these notoriously finicky little sandwich desserts!

Since before I began writing this blog, I have struggled with these little demons. There was a time where I spent about two weeks straight baking nothing but macarons. I have tried dozens of recipes that I found online. I even bought a book for learning how to make them, but the recipe therein used a boiled sugar meringue which was almost impossible to get right. And every failure was an expensive waste of ingredients.

But after all this time, I've found a recipe that really works!

I used this recipe is from Kawaii Sweet World, scaled down to two egg whites, which made the ingredients 2 medium egg whites, at room temperature, 35 grammes (1¼ ounces) caster sugar, 130 grammes (4½ ounces) icing sugar, 80 grammes (2⅘ ounces) ground almonds, and a pinch of salt. As you may have noticed, the ingredients are primarily measured in grammes, as opposed to the ounces as I usually use. This is because grammes are far more precise, and precision is what you need for macarons. By all means, though, use the ounce measurements.

They turned out really well! The only little problems that I encountered were overly browned tops and slightly sticky bottoms. One of the shells broke in half: the top separated from the bottom which was stuck to the paper. As such, I only got 15 sandwiches, as opposed to 16. Taking this into account, next time I make them, I'll make a little side step from the temperature and cooking time: I might do 140°C (285°F, Gas Mk.1) and for 18 to 23 minutes instead.

See how they lost their bottoms? Oh my.

I then used about 170 grammes (6 ounces) of filling to make sandwiches, using about a teaspoon of filling in each pair. I used some leftover chocolate fudge icing, but you could use chocolate spread, buttercream icing, jam, crème pâtissière, or anything you want. I got 15 sandwiches in total; it would have been 16 were it not for the shell that bit the dust.

I'm really, really, really pleased with how these came out: I've never made successful macarons before, and I was truly amazed with how easy Rachel's recipe was to follow, and how great the results were.

I'll be doing many more macarons in the future, maybe shaking up the flavours, shapes, and combinations. I'm excited to add this illusive treat to my repertoire!

THIS TIME IN 2016: American Style Chocolate Chip Muffins (Wheat Free)
THIS TIME IN 2015: April Afternoon Tea Party: Bollywood Part Two!
No blog this day in 2014
THIS TIME IN 2013: Gingerbread of the Gingeriest Proportions (Wheat Free)

Kitchen Experiment: Wagon Wheels (Wheat Free with Dairy Free Option)

And so, the first week of September begins: children and young people return to school and college, Limerick begins to get busier again as everyone returns from their holidays in Kilkee, and at last the shroud of boredom lifts from my work in the community centre. However, it will be some time before routine filters into my brain and wakes it out of the summertime haze of boredom and lethargy.

Having said that, this weekend I decided to do something a little experimental. On Friday I did make some toffee, but I forgot to photograph it and thus there was no recipe write up; I hope to rectify that this coming Friday. But yesterday, I tried my hand at making a household favourite: wagon wheels!

For my readers across the Atlantic, a 'Wagon Wheel' is exactly the same thing as a 'Moon Pie': two plain biscuits, sandwiched with fluffy marshmallow, enrobed in that mysteriously titled 'chocolate flavoured coating' stuff. Mine were a little different, using chocolate biscuits for sandwiching, and real dark chocolate for coating.

About two years ago, I tried my hand at sandwiching biscuits with marshmallow for the first time: I made some dinosaur shaped Kimberley biscuits (again, for those who don't live in Ireland, a Kimberley is two small gingerbread rounds, sandwiched with marshmallow, the sides of which have been dipped in coarse white sugar), and they were great. In hindsight, thinner biscuit would have been preferable, to have the appropriate biscuit to marshmallow ratio for optimum enjoyment.

This time, I again made the same mistake: I made my chocolate biscuits too thick, meaning the wagon wheels are far too big, which isn't an issue for people like me who have a significantly large sweet tooth (which makes finding gum shields that fit well an issue), but to normal folk would make them more of a dessert than a snack.

Another issue, which I will keep in mind for my next marshmallow adventure, is that I didn't use enough gelatine in the marshmallows and they were too soft, more like a melted marshmallow texture. In my mind, the biscuit should be soft, and the marshmallow firm.

If I make these again, I will do a full write up and recipe, but seeing as this was just an experiment, I will give you a log of how I made them.

To make these, I used a fairly standard biscuit recipe: I mixed 6 ounces (170 grammes) white spelt flour, 1 ounce (30 grammes) each of cornflour and cocoa powder, and a teaspoon (5 millilitres) of baking powder with 4 ounces (115 grammes) melted butter (or margarine for a dairy free option), 2 ounces (55 grammes) caster sugar, and enough milk to bind into a sticky dough. I then wrapped it in clingfilm, flattened it into a disc, and chilled for about 30 to 45 minutes. I rolled it out to just under half inch (about 1 centimetre) thickness and cut out rounds. If I were to do it again, the biscuit would be thicker, and contain more sugar and an egg for softness. I baked them for 15 minutes at 180*C, and let them cool before pairing them up with each other for sandwiching.

For the filling, I bloomed 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) of gelatine (by 'bloomed' I mean I soaked it in cold water to make it spongy) in a cup; I also put 1 egg white at room temperature into a large mixing bowl. I cooked 8 ounces (225 grammes) of caster sugar, 2 fluid ounces (60 millilitres) of water, and a few drops of lime juice (for acidity) to the firm ball stage, removed from the heat and stirred in the bloomed gelatine to melt. I whipped the egg white to soft peaks, then gradually added the syrup; in retrospect I could have done it a little more gradually, as the finished marshmallow didn't whip up as much as I'd have liked.

Once I'd made the marshmallow, I put it into a greased disposable piping bag, fitted with a greased large round piping nozzle. For each biscuit, I piped a big dollop of marshmallow into the middle of one biscuit, then sandwiched the other on top, squeezing gently to push the filling out to just short of the edges.

I let them sit for two hours before enrobing in chocolate, just to make sure the filling was mostly set. I melted 5 ounces (140 grammes) of dark chocolate with a rounded teaspoonful (about 5 or 10 millilitres) of coconut oil (to improve the flow for dipping) in a cereal bowl. I dipped each biscuit, flipping to cover both sides, shook off the excess coating then placed them on some lightly greased foil; I would have used baking paper, but I'd run out. I let them set overnight because I was doing this in the evening, but an additional 2 hours would suffice if you were doing them during the day.

I made the mistake of scraping the leftover chocolate onto the tops of the biscuits, and this cause the chocolate to cloud; this was a rookie mistake. So, my wonderful companion - who had already solved two previous culinary problems during the day - suggested that I dust them with icing sugar to hide the clouding. I did, and I also dusted some with cocoa powder for visual interest.

All in all, for a first attempt they turned out very well! Again, as aforementioned, I would make the filling firmer and the biscuits softer, and also make them thinner. I will try another batch and let you all know the results...

THIS TIME IN 2014: Hazelnut Chocolate Gateau (Wheat Free)

THIS TIME IN 2013: Gingerbread Men (Gluten-, Dairy-, Yeast-, Egg Free)

Viennese Whirls (Wheat Free)

I've been in a bit of a baking funk these last few weeks. I suffer badly from mood swings, and sometimes I get stuck in ruts for weeks at a time, and my baking and pretty much everything else suffers for it.

But do you know what is guaranteed to make me feel instantly better? Afternoon tea treats. Even just looking at them makes me instantaneously joyous. As such I recently went to the shop and coveted the Mr Kipling section. I love Mr Kipling cakes so much, especially the French Fancies, but unfortunately he doesn't make gluten free versions because he's a dietist!

So, I thought I'd see if I could make my own versions of his classics! This is a recipe for the basic biscuit of the Viennese Whirls. The Mr Kipling version is sandwiched with chewy jam and buttercream, but when you make them yourself you can sandwich them with anything you like, including my most recent pash orange chocolate spread.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Eggs

CONTAINS
☒ Gluten
☒ Dairy (use ingredients in italics for a dairy-free version)
☒ Refined sugar products

INGREDIMENTS:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) butter or block margarine
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) icing sugar
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) white spelt flour or gluten-free plain flour with xanthan gum
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of water, if needed

HOW TO

• Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Line one or two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the butter or margarine until smooth and creamy, then beat in the icing sugar.
• Add in the cornflour, and beat again until smooth. Add in the spelt flour, and beat until
  it becomes a thick mixture.
•  If the mixture looks too thick to pipe, add a teaspoon or so of water and mix again, however add no more than 2 teaspoons of water in total.
• Using a ½ inch (1 centimeter) closed star nozzle, pipe little rosettes, about an inch (2½ centimeters) apart. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.
• Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before either eating or sandwiching with jam, if wanted.

And there you have it! Go on, give this recipe a whirl! (cue, badum-dum-tsh!)

Jammie Dodgers (or Linzer Biscuits) (Wheat Free)

Today and yesterday have been baking madness for me! Tomorrow, I have a bake sale for which I'm concocting delicious things. But, I've found time to post about something I made earlier in the week: wheat-free Jammie Dodgers!

Jammie Dodgers are the quintessential biscuit barrel favourite, bested only by Custard Creams and Bourbon Creams: two vanilla biscuits sammidged together with tooth fusingly chewy ‘fruit-flavour’ jam. They are the business, so how awesome is it that they can be made very easily at home?

This is a nice, simple recipe to have up your sleeve, the only downside is that they are quite time consuming; there’s a lot of waiting involved, but it’s the same with any kind of sandwich biscuit (make the dough, chill the dough, cut the biscuits, bake them, cool them, make filling and then sandwich, there's a lot involved; but it's all worth it). You can use any good biscuit recipe, as long as the recipe yields dough that doesn’t change its shape much in the oven: for example, shortbread would work well, or any plain cut-out biscuit recipe would be fine, too.

The key to this recipe is the jam you use. Whether it’s blackcurrant, raspberry, strawberry, or whatever, make sure it has a nice high fruit content. I use jam that is about 60 percent fruit, as this makes the jam full of flavour without being sickly sweet, as you need to add a little sugar later to make it the appropriate stickiness. More on the jam later!

For the biscuits, I used this almond shortbread recipe:

INGREDIMENTS

For the biscuits

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) butter
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 4 ounces (115 grammes) spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) ground almonds
• Pinch of salt

For the jam

• 4 to 5 ounces (115 to 140 grammes) good quality jam
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) caster sugar
• ½ teaspoon (2.5 millilitres) cornflour
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) cold water

HOW-TO

First, make the biscuits

• Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F, Gas Mark 2½, very moderate).
• Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla essence.
• Mix in the dry ingredients and form into a soft dough.
• Unlike the usual kinds of shortbread biscuits, this dough has to rolled and cut-out before chilling in the fridge. This mixture is too delicate to be chilled beforehand, as it just crumbles because of the ground almonds.
• Roll to ⅛ inch thick (3 or 4 millimetres) and cut out with a 2 inch (5 centimetre) round, fluted cutter. Using an icing nozzle or small circle cutter ½ inch wide (1 centimetre), punch small holes out of the centres of half the biscuits. Re roll the trimmings and continue making until you have an equal quantity of full and ring-shaped biscuits.
• Lie them on a flat surface, such as a baking tray, and chill uncovered for 15 minutes.
• Take the biscuits out of the fridge and arrange 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) apart on baking trays lined with non-stick paper. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until very lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make jam filling

• Press the jam through a sieve to remove any pips or tough skins. Put the jam in a small saucepan.
• In a glass, mix the sugar, water, and cornflour into a paste. Add this to the jam.
• Cook the jam gently until it begins to bubble, about 5 minutes. Cool slightly, then sandwich the biscuits together – one full, one ring – with a teaspoon of jam filling.

This whole recipe yields 16 to 18 sandwiches (32 to 36 little biscuits in total). If you want to make them look more like the shop-bought ones, you can sprinkle the little jammie windows with granulated sugar and tip off the excess. These are nice and crunchy the day they're made, but the day after they soften up a little as the biscuit absorbs the moisture from the jam, and this is perfectly normal.