Honey Spice Biscuits

I had an idea to come up with a new recipe for biscuits using honey and cardamom. I left it late to start cooking and started scrabbling around my kitchen shelves for cardamom pods. After I'd emptied the whole cupboard of every bottle of spice and herbs I realised I didn't have any. I still wanted to do some baking so had a quick re-think and decided to try sticking to the spice theme but with a different mix of flavours. The experiment turned out very nicely. These biscuits actually turned out to be very morish - you have been warned! :)

Thanks to my friend Sarah I also had a new set of animal cookie cutters to try out! I'm just a bit worried that the makers of these cutters (branded by the Natural History Museum, London no less) seem to think that lions are bigger than elephants... :)

Honey Spice Biscuits

Ingredients:

Dough goes in...

5 oz Self raising flour.

1 tsp Ground ginger

1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon

Pinch Ground cloves

Pinch Salt

1 oz Butter

1 tbsp Golden syrup

1 tbsp Honey

2 oz Golden caster sugar

Milk

Method:

1. Grease a couple of baking trays and preheat the oven to 180 C.

2. Place the sugar, syrup, honey, butter and spices into a small pan. Warm these ingredients together gently over a low heat, stirring occasionally until the ingredients are melted together. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes.

...biscuits come out.

3. Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl.

4. Pour the cooled syrup mixture into the flour and mix together.

5. Add sufficient milk to get a pliable but not sticky dough.

6, Roll the dough out until it's quite thin on a floured work surface. 

7. Cut out any shapes you like from the sheet of dough and move the biscuits onto the prepared baking trays.

8. Bake for around 15 minutes until golden brown. Move the cooked biscuits to a cooling rack and allow to cool and become crisp.

Flapjack Fest

I did some baking last week when I was short of time so I settled on some easy flapjacks. I decided to add a bit of apple and spice to this batch. The result is a soft texture and a fruity taste. If you don't fancy the apple variation, I've included my usual recipe which gives a much crisper result and which is plain but delicious!

Apple, Sultana and Cinnamon Flapjack

4 oz Butter

1 oz Demerara sugar

1 oz Soft, dark brown sugar

2 tbsp Golden syrup

5 oz Porridge oats

1 oz Plain flour

1 Small apple, peeled, cored and diced.

2 oz Sultanas

1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon 

Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Grease and line a square 7-8" tin. Preheat the oven to 180 C.

2. Melt together the butter, sugars and golden syrup in a small pan over a low heat.

3. In a bowl, mix together all of the remaining ingredients.

4. Pour the melted butter mixture into the bowl and stir well.

5. Press the mixture firmly into the tin using the back of a metal spoon.

6. Bake for 25 - 35 minutes until nicely browned.

7. While the flapjacks are still soft when they come out of the oven, take a sharp knife and cut the flapjack into slices. Once completely cooled, turn out of the tin.

Best Flapjacks

4 oz Butter

2 oz Demerara sugar

2 tbsp Golden syrup

5 oz Porridge oats

1 oz Plain flour 

Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Grease and line a square 7-8" tin. Preheat the oven to 180 C.

2. Melt together the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a small pan over a low heat.

3. In a bowl, mix together all of the remaining ingredients.

4. Pour the melted butter mixture into the bowl and stir well.

5. Press the mixture firmly into the tin using the back of a metal spoon.

6. Bake for 25 - 35 minutes until nicely browned.

7. While the flapjacks are still soft when they come out of the oven, take a sharp knife and cut the flapjack into slices. Once completely cooled, turn out of the tin.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies

Another Christmas recipe. I made these for the work Christmas party in addition to to the Mincemeat Shortbread. I like to have cookies quite crisp and more biscuit like rather than soft. With this recipe it's quite easy to adjust the finished consistency by changing the baking time. For soft biscuits go for around 10-12 minutes, for crispy ones, try around 18-20 minutes. Keep an eye on the biscuits if you bake them for the longer period as they catch around the edges very easily.

This recipe makes about 20 cookies, depending on how generous you are when spooning out the mixture.

White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies


Ingredients
4 oz Butter, softened.
3 oz Soft, light brown sugar.
2 tbsp Golden syrup.
6 oz Self raising flour.
1/2 tsp Ground ginger.
3 oz White chocolate chips (or dark or milk as you prefer)
1 oz Dried cranberries.
2 tbsp Milk.

Method
1. Heat oven to 180 C, Gas 4. Grease a couple of baking trays.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy.

3. Add in all the remaining ingredients and beat well until everything is well mixed.

4. Drop teaspoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets. Allow space for the cookies to spread during cooking.

5. Bake for 10-12 or 18-20 minutes in the centre of the pre-heated oven, depending on how crisp you want the cookies.

6. Once baked, leave the cookies on the trays for a minute and then transfer to a wire cooling rack.