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.

Tea with Lemon Cake

I had a go at coming up with a new cake at the weekend that would combine a tea bread with a type of lemon drizzle cake. As it turned out it worked quite well, the cake is a bit crumbly but that means it's just best to have it in thick slices. :) Earl Grey tea seems to work well here with it's slightly perfumed, lemon flavour. However, if you really don't like Earl Grey you could substitute a regular blend.

Tea with Lemon Cake

225g Mixed dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, mixed peel etc)

1 Lemon

150ml Hot Earl Grey Tea

225g Self-raising flour

100g Soft, dark brown sugar

50g Soft margarine 

1 Egg

2 1/2 tbsp Icing sugar

Pinch salt

Method:

1. Make up some strong Earl Grey tea. While the tea is still hot mix it into the dried fruit in a small bowl. Grate in the zest of the lemon. Cover the bowl and leave over night to allow the fruit to absorb the tea.

2. The following day, preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin.

3. Cream together the margarine and sugar in a large bowl.

4. Add the mixed fruit (along with any remaining tea in the bowl), flour, salt and egg. Mix everything together well. You should end up with a mixture with a soft, dropping consistency.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and level the surface with the back of a metal spoon.

6. Bake the cake for about an hour until browned, well risen and when a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. 

7. While the cake cooks, juice the lemon into a small jug or bowl and mix in the icing sugar. This makes the lemon glaze for the top of the cake.

8. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven pour over the prepared glaze. Return to the oven for a couple of minutes and then bring the cake out of the oven to cool, still in the tin, on a wire rack.

9. When the cake is completely cold run a knife around the edge of the tin and then turn out the cake onto a plate.

New name, new things!

Yep the name of the blog has changed. All the recipes are still here though! I've decided to start adding some reviews of my favourite cook books and books about food in between the recipes. I decided that the blog needed a new name that better reflected the change in content, it also hints some what more at my day job and my rather large cookery book collection (which I'm still very slowly adding to LibraryThing). I'm looking forward to sharing some of my favourite books soon. Watch this space.

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.