Biscuits. Ciasteczka
We have lied a little bit, I’m afraid.
Obawiam się, że trochę kłamaliśmy.
Po polsku [poniżej]
The truth is, we don’t only make bread, and we will share more than just bread. Sorry!
Yesterday was a baking mania day. I had baking stuck in my head all day, and gave in, when spending time with our son.
After his nap we made some biscuits. They had to be fast and easy, and not too messy. And we’ve got just a thing for that: a cookie press, just like this one from Amazon. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, it’s good enough for me. Gosia won it at a school fair some time ago (there’s another one approaching next July). It’s very basic but precisely what we needed.
Last couple of times it frustrated me more than gave fun, as I couldn’t get the dough right. It should not be thick, and should be sticky enough to stick to the baking tray. This time we managed to make it work. It seems the key is very soft butter, icing sugar and enough eggs. We used a slightly modified recipe from the box. I scaled it up to a 250 g box of butter and reduced sugar content by about 15%.
Ingredients
This made around fifty larger biscuits.
- 250 g soft butter
- 360 g plain flour
- 110 g icing sugar
- Two medium eggs
- Two teaspoons of vanilla extract
- I added about 5-10 g of cocoa powder, but it’s not needed
Preparation
- Set your oven to about 180 C with convection, or 200 C without it – start with it, you’ll have the first batch ready before it heats up.
- Mix everything thoroughly in a bowl. I used a mixer (I’m a lazy bastard, and I’m proud of it).
- Put the the dough into the press.
- Press biscuits onto a non-stick baking tray. I found that usually baking paper did not work well and the paper was stuck to the press instead of a biscuit left on the tray.
My press has two settings of a biscuit size. smaller makes more pieces to grab, bigger makes less work.
After you’re done, check behind the piston. In my press the piston does not fill the whole space and the dough gets behind. It would be a shame to waste a chance for a couple more, wouldn’t it? - After you fill the tray, pop it into the oven for about 7-8 minutes. Bigger ones need a bit more and maybe a slightly lower temperature (to avoid burnt surface and raw middle; you know your oven better than me). Smaller ones need about 5 minutes.
- Let them cool down for a bit after taking out of the oven. Then just put on a plate and enjoy.
Yesterday when our son was asleep, I mixed the dough and prepared the press and trays. After he woke up, we turned the oven on and got going. An hour later all that was left to do was to tell Mom how the baking went, and it’s not an easy task when you use single, mostly self-authored, words.
The biscuits are very simple and slightly crunchy, just right. They went as quickly as they came. Next in line are jammy dodgers, the uberbiscuits. Maybe next month.
Freshly baked jammy doddgers