A sandy star is born

Everything is better in a star shape. This is a universal truth. Actually when I was dipping the raw dough cut-outs of 'The Dutch' Pecan Sandies* in sugar and cinnamon, they resembled starfish more than stars. Which incidentally are pretty life-affirming themselves, in a blobby kind of way. 

And I don't know if it was all the influence of the shape but these biscuits really are stars. They're delicately crunchy, very sandy, nutty flavoured and perfumed with cinnamon and a mix of sugars. They got a thumbs up all round from my taste-testers. A definite hit.

I was busy telling my colleague that they weren't very difficult to make at all, and then I started to say, 'well except for the beurre noisette (that takes aaaages) and then mixing is quick but you need to leave it in the fridge, then roll it out, then refrigerate, then cut, then refrigerate, then dip....'. Hmmmm difficult really is a relative term. If you've ever made a 9-pages-of-instructions, behemoth cheesecake, cake and buttercream extravaganza then starry biscuits are somewhat of a doddle in comparison.

*I suspect biscuit marketers would have something to say about that name, it doesn't exactly roll off the page. 

I was wishing we had smellovision when I mixed the three sugars (white sugar, brown sugar and golden sugar) with vanilla essence, so you could all experience the aroma, which was unbelievably delicious. I spent the time while I was waiting for the brown butter to cool, hanging out next to the bowl of delicious sugary scents.

I actually made my biscuits with walnuts rather than pecans. I have a big bag (now slightly smaller) which I bought for another Alpha Baker project. Everything is going to be walnut until I get that thing finished. The nutty flavour was delicious so it seemed to be a happy substitution.

I had seen biscuits called 'sandies' before in North American recipes but I didn't know what they were exactly. There's no mystery once you taste one - they are gritty like a mouthful of sand except sweeter and tastier. The texture is intriguing if you haven't tried it before. I didn't have time to google but I'm wondering if they're related to the Spanish polverones which literally 'pulverise' when you bite into them? I always thought they were more shortbread-ish. Whatever they are, they taste great. Probably even if they're round.

Next week the Alpha Bakers are making Babka.

Rose's Chocolate Chip Cookies

I knew, when I read that these biscuits were on the Baking Bible 'quick and easy' list, that that probably wasn't true. For a start Rose calls them My Chocolate Chip Cookies. If they're Rose's specialty then there's going to be something extra good about them, right? Plus if you've been following the Alpha Bakers for a while you'll know that Rose just can't help herself but add in some fancy step. And I was right. Not only do you have to make beurre noisette (browned butter) you also have to skin walnuts - two baking tasks which require the baker to exercise the highest degree of zen.

I cut out one of the zen-requiring tasks by not including the walnuts which made this recipe pretty easy, although a mishap with the butter added some time and severely tested my patience. In the end I liked these biscuits but they didn't wow me. I really felt like I wanted to add more flour to these since they seemed a bit insubstantial for my taste. This has not stopped me 'sampling' quite a few of them 'to see if I like them'. Rose notes that if you leave the dough in the fridge for a day or two it will make the biscuits thinner and crispier. I quite like doughier biscuits and I needed to finish baking these on the weekend so I baked them after a few hours of cooling. They were crunchy on the day I made them but after a night in the fridge had gone a bit soft. Unfortunately with the heat and the insects you can't leave chocolate biscuits out of the fridge here.

I was making the Bread Bible Challah recipe while I clarified the butter for these biscuits (you have to do something else at the same time because it takes sooooo long). I was feeling pretty smug about my browned butter since I'd been very patient and let it slowly clarify and brown. Then the bowl slipped out of my hand and I spilled the majority of the butter down the bench and all over the floor, my feet and the kitchen rug. Not only did I have to scavenge more butter out of the freezer (due to unusually low stocks of unsalted butter in my fridge) I had to clean greasy butter off the bench, the cupboards, the floor, my thongs*, my feet and the kitchen rug. The second lot of butter was less 'browned' than the first since my patience had worn a little thin.

*these are shoes in Australia not underwear just in case you were wondering about my choice of baking attire.

Look Mum, no walnuts! Why would you sully chocolate with nuts, I ask you? I added a few more chocolate chips to compensate. The lack of walnuts removed the guilt I might have felt had I used the walnuts and not bothered skinning them (an awful job which I just might consider undertaking if the Queen was coming to tea, or Rose, for that matter*).

*You're welcome for tea anytime Rose.

The finished biscuit dough could only be described as a blob. It seemed unlikely that it would allow itself to be turned into biscuits. However I have seen the Miracle of the Fridge before, where mixes and doughs become something entirely different after a spell in the cold. One thing about cooking with Rose is that she pretty much never leads you astray; so when things are looking doubtful the possibilities are either a) it's going to turn out all right or b) you've mucked it up yourself (and need to take evasive action). I didn't think I'd made any mistakes this time so I wrapped up the blob and put it in the fridge not too worried about its future.

And hallelujah! little biscuits emerged from the blob. I cooked them for the full 12 minutes but I'm wondering if I could have baked them for a bit longer to maintain the crunch past day 1. I didn't have any complaints at work so I think you could call them a success.

Next week is a rest week for the Alpha Bakers (phew!). But if I'm feeling enthusiastic on the weekend I might try to catch up on the Renee Fleming Golden Chiffon cake which I missed out on making just before Christmas.

Splodgy Spritz Butter Cookies

My Alpha Baker project for this week, the Butter Spritz Cookies, came out looking very pretty if a little splodgy. I think the splodginess is due to the fact I should have refrigerated them before I baked them. I was lead astray from my hard-learnt Principles of Baking in High Heat and Humidity by the fact that these are so quick and easy to make and the dough is very well-behaved. 

Somehow this didn't dampen my enjoyment of these biscuits, both making and eating. The flavour is very nice, with a distinct almond taste, and the texture is soft with a slight crunch. If I was going to start a rating scale for Christmas biscuits (and why wouldn't I) these would be a 7 out of 10 for ease of baking and aesthetics, only losing marks for being a little plain in flavour (I enjoy the spice that comes with a lot of Christmas goodies but other may see plainness as a positive).

The only thing I wasn't too keen on for this recipe was the glace cherries which I grudgingly bought. I always pick them off but you do need some colour and shine to make the biscuits look a bit interesting (i.e. Christmassy). Happy days though, as I was strolling the aisles of the supermarket I spotted not one but two different types of jelly tots (one from the UK, one Australian version). I bought them both, a move which really heralds the start of my annual campaign of Christmas excess and general overkill. They do bring down the tone of the biscuits a bit (to something a bit more childish), but they taste a lot nicer that the cherries. Guess who's getting glace cherries in their stocking? (hello Mum).

Piping bag or ancient hand-me-down biscuit press? This is the type of big philosophical question we Alpha Bakers have to face week in, week out. And the answer is...biscuit press.

I tried the piping bag first (you can see the cute little test-biscuit below) but the biscuit came out so small and then my $2.99 piping bag started expelling dough from the sides, so I gave up. I got out a biscuit press which came from either my grandmother or great aunt, which I have never used.

The biscuit press took a little while to work out. You can't see too clearly in the photo but the biscuit closest to the camera is enormous with decreasing size as you move away around the baking sheet. I put these back in the dough pile and started again.

The first tray was pretty comical looking. Pressed too close to the tray, too far away from the tray, double press. I tried it all. But it was a lot of fun and the dough was very easy to deal with. I could have scooped them back in and started again but I wanted to see what shape the different models baked into. And how the different jelly tots held up in the oven.

*Phew* much more evenly sized. I started to get the hang of it. This is when I should have put them in the fridge.

The third tray - evenly sized with sparkles!

Now I'm off to the kitchen shop to see if I can find a modern biscuit press and a better piping bag.

Next week we're making Pumpkin Pecan Pie, which is what I said last week, but this week it's really true. See you then.

And Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends for Thursday!

The start of Christmas baking? Hazelnut praline cookies

The Alpha Bakers are making biscuits this week - Hazelnut Praline Cookies to be exact. I have to be honest, baking biscuits doesn't excite me too much unless it's directly associated with Christmas. (Because everything to do with Christmas is more fun.) I'm always happy to eat biscuits, of course. 

There's not a lot for me to complain about with these biscuits though. They were quick and easy to make as long as you don't fluff the toffee making (not this time) and factor in refrigerator time. Actually I find time required for cooling or rising often makes it easier to fit baking around the rest of my life.

It's impossible not to like biscuits which are made up of three quarters praline. I may have cooked the first batch a bit too long since I found them a little bit too dry. I have some more dough in the fridge so I'll try cooking the next biscuits for less than 15 minutes. I think shorter baking time would bring out the flavour of the praline more. And if I considered making these for Christmas I might go to the trouble of half dipping them in chocolate to really fancy them up.

I enjoyed this recipe also because I got to use one of my favourite kitchen equipment purchases for the year. (I keep meaning to do a round up post on all my new stuff - maybe at the end of the year I'll get to it.) Rose's penchant for minuscule measurements (2/18ths of a teaspoon anyone?) meant I was in need of extra measuring spoons. I found a set which measure amounts such as a tad, a smidgen and a pinch (1/16th) which I used for the salt in this recipe.

Oh, I didn't mention that you're meant to spend time boiling and skinning the large amount of hazelnuts in this recipe. If I had had to do that there would be a lot more complaining in this post. As it was I found some blanched hazelnuts at my local shop (luckily they don't realise I would be willing to pay almost any price for them). I managed to make a small amount of toffee without incident, to pour onto the toasted hazelnuts to make the praline. The praline was so delicious I ate a shameful amount of the unused portion with a spoon.

It was simple to mix the biscuit dough ingredients up to a wet paste, which firmed up in the fridge.

The biscuit dough was very forgiving, even in the heat (ha, bet you thought I wasn't going to mention the weather this week). I much prefer rolling little balls than rolling out dough and cutting shapes - it's so much less stressful. I also prefer it because I never weigh the individual balls of dough even though this is suggested by Rose. I like to think hell will freeze over before I find myself weighing tiny pieces of dough but I guess you never know what another year with Rose and the Alpha Bakers will bring.

Next week the Alpha Bakers are making Pumpkin Pecan Pie which is very timely for our US contingent celebrating Thanksgiving.

The most delicious strudelly biscuit

Do not wait. Do not think. Do not stop. Go straight home and make these. You may want to stop for some ice cream to eat with them but that's the only diversion you should make. These are seriously delicious (not really biscuits and not really strudel) and you do not want to miss out. If you've read my other posts you won't be surprised to learn I did NOT wait the recommended 6 hours after baking to try these. I don't think I even made the 6 minute mark. And I just kept on 'trying' them. Eventually I rushed some over to my neighbour, just so I could truthfully say I hadn't eaten them all myself.

These are the rather prosaically named (for Rose) Cookie Strudel from the Baking Bible. I'm not sure I would have chosen to bake them, if left to my own devices, because the picture doesn't do justice to the flavour (how could it?!) plus it's always a bit trying to make this kind of pastry in the heat. I love Rose's rugelach but they always end up looking like they fell out of the oven when I make them at Christmas. Of course I've learnt some new skills over the last (almost) year; in particular the benefits of refrigerating dough/biscuits at every stage to help combat the effects of the heat and humidity.

Actually you might be slightly misled by my 'do not stop' advice since you have to wait a number of hours for the pastry dough to firm up in the fridge before you can finish these. And if you live in a very warm climate like Darwin you need to refrigerate during the shaping and before the baking too.

You can see that my dough came out very wet. It looks like cake batter almost. It was quite tasty but not really rating highly on the delicious scale for raw dough. 

It was a miracle that (after overnight in the fridge) that wet dough was able to be rolled out (using plentiful amounts of flour) into a thin rectangle (with some emergency refrigeration in between).

The scant filling of walnuts, currants and cinnamon on top of apricot jam makes this a fairly cheap biscuit/dessert to make. 

Now that my workmates have discovered phylliscaroline there are no baking secrets anymore and I fear I may have to make a batch for them to avoid outrage and retribution for not sharing. I might need to make it double batch. Surely I couldn't eat a double batch myself before I got to work...?

Next week the Alpha Bakers are making (the long winded) Marble in Reverse with Custom Rose Blend Ganache Glaze.