10. May 2013

'HOME MADE' Stamped Biscuits

 

I was given two lovely biscuit or cookie stampers from a friend of mine.

Today I tried the first one out, the other will have to wait as it is says Merry Christmas. The result is fun, although they get quite soft and runny in the oven - so the nice HOME MADE is not really that readable - but who wants to complain when the result is very yumm-mmh?

And considering they found huge fans in the house, I will be able to develop the recipe a little so that the embossing well be shown in a clearer way. So for now I will go with the recipe as it came with the stamp, and after writing this we will sit down with a cup of coffee and a biscuit or two........

 

 

 

Ingredients for 24 biscuits:

 

250g butter, cut into 1cm cubes

140g caste sugar,

1/4 teaspoon salt,

1/2 teaspoon baking powder,

300g plain flour,

1 egg yolk,

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Method:

 

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt and transfer the mixture into the food processor.

3. Scatter the butter in and separate the bits attached to each other by carefully dusting them with the flour.

4. Process everything until everything is blended and the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix until it starts to form a dough. Take it out, work it with your hands until well combined. Wrap in cling film and put it into the fridge for 1 hour for a better result.

5. Separate dough into 30g portions, this is the amount that worked best with this stamp. I weighed the portions on my kitchen scales and then formed them into balls.

6. Flour the work top surface and the stamp regularly so the biscuits don't stick to them. Take a ball of dough, place the stamp over it so the ball is roughly in the middle of the stamp than stamp the biscuit. It needs some time to work out how to do it as mine tended to be thinner on one side, so I tried to press deliberately towards the other side for an even thickness.

7. Place the biscuits on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place them at least 4cm apart from each other onto the sheet or they will stick together. Bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes, or until nicely coloured and golden brown.

8. Remove from the oven and leave on the tray to cool and harden for a couple of minutes, then transfer them onto a wire cooling rack.