We’ve seen the first episode of the ninth series of The Great British Bake Off already which means it’s time for me to bake along with the show. The first episode of the series was Biscuit Week and the challenge I chose to attempt was the Technical which was Wagon Wheels. I chose to invent…
Tag: biscuits
Strawberry and Black Sesame Cookies
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a cookie recipe despite the fact they’re some of the most popular on the blog! I’ve often talked about how I used to find that making cookies was tricky with the resulting cookies ending up bland and tough but after a lot of trial and error, I’ve grown…
Giant Linzer Cookie and Linzer Sandwich Cookies
Named after the city of Linz in Austria, Linzertorte is said to be the oldest cake in the world dating back to a Veronese recipe from 1653. Its popularity rose after being taken over to Milwaukee by an Austrian traveller. The linzer cookie is a derivative of the linzertorte made by cutting out shapes of…
Dark Chocolate and Black Sesame Biscuits
Black sesame is an ingredient commonly used in many Chinese desserts such as black sesame soup called ji ma wu (a type of tong sui, or sweet soup – I’ve got a recipe for one here!) or as a filling for mochi or tong yuen which are glutinous rice balls. In the UK however, black…
Apple and Sultana Hot Cross Scones
Scones are a brilliant starting place for any beginner baker and homemade scones fresh from the oven are far superior to supermarket scones. I’ve given the classic scone a slight twist with the addition of apple and seeing as we’re in April and Easter is around the corner, I added a cross on top of…
Valentine’s Day White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies
The combination of white chocolate and cranberry is classic in a biscuit; in fact I even used as the basis of one of my 12 Days of Christmas recipes, my White Chocolate Cranberry Crunch Biscuits. Instead of doing a crunchy biscuit, I’m combining white chocolate and cranberry with my signature soft cookie recipe and as…
Crystallised Stem Ginger Cookies
Ginger is one of the building blocks of Chinese cuisine and it is well known (and increasingly backed up by science) that ginger has many health-bearing properties; Confucius said “do not take away the ginger” because ginger can reduce internal heat and fever. With all that, here’s another, less traditional, recipe that would be perfect…
Day 8 of 12: Gingerbread Hazelnut Latte Biscotti
If you’ve been following my 12 Days of Christmas series (and I can’t believe that we’re here on Day 8 already, the time has flown by!), you know that I’ve been a bit obsessed with making biscotti; I’ve already made White Chocolate and Cranberry Crunch Biscuits and Red Velvet Hazelnut Biscotti for Days 4 and…
Day 6 of 12: Melted Snowman Chocolate Cupcakes
Back on Day 2 of 12 Days of Christmas, I posted my recipe for Melted Snowman Chocolate Chip Cookies. The story behind those was the idea of seeing your snowman melt away slowly and needing some comfort with some warm chocolate chip cookies. I’ve since seen quite a few melted snowman themed bakes which involved…
Day 5 of 12: Red Velvet Hazelnut Biscotti
Red velvet cakes seem to be popular with lots of people these days with a chocolate sponge coloured a bright red is paired with a classic cream cheese frosting. I decided to venture into the world of red velvet but in biscuit form by devising a recipe for Red Velvet Hazelnut Biscotti with White Chocolate…
Day 4 of 12: White Chocolate and Cranberry Crunch Biscuits
These biscuits are very crunchy and brittle and are of a similar style to biscotti with the crunch coming from being baked twice. They are perfect for placing into a cellophane bag and tying up with a decorative ribbon to give as an edible gift for someone this Christmas! The combination of cranberry and white…
Day 2 of 12: Melted Snowman Chocolate Chip Cookies
The saddest part of a snow day is seeing your lovingly built snowman, fit with a bright orange carrot nose, button eyes wrapped in your favourite scarf and woolly hat, start to melt away and fall into the ground. At the risk of sounding like a John Lewis advert, you can certainly forget the melancholy…
Making a Gingerbread Oven Showstopper
Inspired by The Great British Bake Off’s Biscuit Week Showstopper in which the bakers made a 3D gingerbread story containing at least 8 characters or objects, I decided to have a go at the challenge myself, by making an oven completely out of gingerbread. My Gingerbread Oven is currently baking 10 gingerbread diamond biscuits and…
Homemade Vanilla Custard Creams: #GBBOTwitterBakeAlong
Whilst the Rio Olympics sweep the nation, you might know that Bake Off starts in just under 2 weeks time on Wednesday 24th August. On Twitter, @kuskus1 and @Rob_C_Allen are hosting the #GBBOTwitterBakeAlong where the Twitter baking community will be baking along with the new series. Currently we are doing a few pre-bakes and from…
My Thoughts on Biscuit Week
Biscuit Week was full of ups, downs, Mary and Paul’s teeth scattered across the tent with the crunchy biscotti, collapsed biscuit boxes and the remaining pastry crumbs from the arlettes. Yep that’s a pastry in Biscuit Week. But more controversy later… The signature challenge this week is Biscotti, a twice baked Italian biscuit. The bakers…
Andrew in the Kitchen 