Monday, May 02, 2011

Baking up a storm for flag day

Happy Flag day continues with me baking, I have been in the kitchen slaving away for literally minutes to make more things for my always in danger of growing waistline. Today it was some Savoury biscuits and for the first time in a long, long time I actually wrote down the recipe to share! Great work, no?
So lets get to it. Preheat your oven now, as they are stupidly easy to make. I set mine to around 190C but of course all ovens vary, so think about normal biscuits and this is what you want to cook them at.

Next get all your ingredients:

1 cup of plain flour (plus some for rolling)
1 cup of wholemeal flour
1/3 cup of whole wheat bran
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp baking powder
cracked pepper to taste
150g butter
1/4 cup boiling water
1-2 tsp of Olive oil
Flavourings: ie seeds, herbs, spices, cheeses

It is really easy, first things first, combine all your dry ingredients. I sifted my white flour, but I really don't think you will need to. I then worked through the butter like I was making scones, so that it resembled course breadcrumbs at the end of it. Then I added the oil and water, I mix everything by hand normally, but as this is boiling water, I used a spoon. Of course, a mixer will work fine here. I added enough water to make sure that the mix stuck together but wasn't sticky, if you make it too sticky it isn't a problem, just when you tip it out to roll add some more flour and work it in.

So next I just added kneaded the dough a little to make sure it all combined well but it still has a slight "crumbly" appearance. I did this as I really wanted the biscuits to be crunchy and not doughy, but if you wanted the more cake, you will have to work it harder to make it more solid. or even add a touch more water. It was at this stage I added sunflower seeds as I wanted them in all my biscuits, but that is up to you if you want to or not.

Then I divided the dough up into small balls about the size of the palm of your hand, then I added different flavourings.
I chose to use: Paprika, garlic granules, and extra cracked pepper.
Rosemary and garlic granules
Cheese (cheddar grated)
Cheese and chilli flakes
But of course you can choose anything you want at all, the more savoury the better. I think blue cheese would work well as would things like sundried tomato and of course any seeds you want. If you aren't adding any flavours and just want a very simple one I would probably add a little more salt and pepper.

Then add to the oven for about 8 minutes or until it starts
I was certainly in a baking mood today and whipped up a chocolate and papaya cake, alas, I didn't record the ingredients but it would be roughly 2 cups flour, tsp baking powder, 15g butter, 1 double yolk egg, a tablespoon of olive oil, vanilla sugar, 150g of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of milk a good hand full or two of dried papaya and two blocks of chocolate, at least 50% cocoa solids.
Happy baking!!

5 comments:

miss_chunks said...

Hello Garth, I really like your profile picture and I am hoping maybe we can become pen pals. Please write me my email address is chunkylover53@aol.com

Gee Em said...

thanks miss chunks I just sent you an email. Great to hear from you!

miss_chunks said...

that sounds hot. maybe we could grab a drink @ moe's tonite? ... xoxo

Paddy said...

Good lord!

Gee Em said...

hahaha Paddy, that is my wife being silly :) Chukylover53 of course is Homer Simpsons email address ;)