Welcome to week 2 of the Great Bloggers Bake Off 2014! I cannot wait for the second episode of the GBBO tonight and see what amazing biscuit creations the bakers will attempt to make. Therefore, the theme for week 2 is BISCUITS and you can make any type of biscuit/cookie and it can be sweet or savoury, regular ones or maybe you are feeling brave enough to attempt a tower of biscuits or some marvellous 3D creations! Or maybe you would like to make tonights technical bake, the Florentine (yum!) or your own version of it. As long as your biscuit bake fits in with the bakes featured on tonights show, and is made by you and a new recipe for your blog, I will be Mary (merry! lol *ahem*!)
I do not have much luck with biscuit making, cakes I can do but biscuits always seem to go wrong for me. However, I do recall when I was at school that I made some ginger fairings and they worked out ok, a kind of bsicuit crossed with a cookie and lovely and big and packed full of that ginger kick that I love. I managed to dig out an old recipe book of mine, and found a recipe of sorts that I had scribbled down some years ago and decided to attempt some ginger biscuits, but I added some lemon zest and because I had been sent a bar of Green and Blacks Dark Chocolate with Lemon from my Degustabox Uk delivery this month, I thought this would make for a rather yummy biscuit indeed.
I was not wrong – my goodness me these were amazing and quite fiery as the stem ginger and ground giner added a little heat which was too much for my boys, but fine for me and the OH. The chocolate and lemon zest definately added a new and delicious dimension to these ginger biscuits. However, they lost thier crunshg and were more cheswy and soft, which is fine by me as I like cookies like that, but I don’t think Mary and Paul would have been impressed by my lack of biscuit snap appeal!
Anyway, here are my Ginger, Lemon and Chocolate Biscuits (more like cookies but biscuits is the theme- ssssh!)
- 350g self-raising flour
- pinch of salt
- 175g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 115g unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 large egg (beaten)
- 1 x 100g bar of Green & Black Dark Chocolate with Lemon but any chocolate would suffice
- 150g preserved stem ginger in syrup, drained and chopped.coarsely
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC /1400C (fan oven)
- Line 4 baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
- Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt, caster sugar,ground ginger, lemon zest and bicarbonate of soda and stir to combine. Leave to one side
- Meanwhile place the butter and golden syrup in a small non stick saucepan and heat gently, over a low to moderate heat stirring frequently until the butter has melted. Then remove from the heat and set aside to cool until it is tepid.
- Pour the butter mixture over the dry ingredients, then add the egg and two thirds of the stem ginger. Mix thoroughly and then as a dough starts to form, you may want to use your hands to bring it all together.
- Shape the dough into approx 20 large balls. Place them, spaced well apart on the baking sheets and gently flatten each one.
- The top each of the biscuits with some more stem ginger
- Bake in the oven for about 12-15 mins, until light golden in colour.
- Allow to cool and then place in a tin with a lid to keep them biscuity
- I dipped some of my biscuits in chocolate which is optional of course as they taste just as delicious plain, to do this simply melt your chocolate and then coat half of each biscuit in the chocolate. Once cooled, place in a tin with a lid and keep in a cool place.
They were ruddy gorgeous and did not last long!
So now over to you, on your marks get set……….BAKE!!!!!!!!
** A reminder of the Great Bloggers Bake Off 2014 rules**
So if you would like to join in this year or you are back again for some more baking fun, then here is what it entails:
**the Wednesday night following each episode of the GBBO a linky will open, and you need to bake a recipe inspired by one which was featured in the show. It can be an exact copy, one you have created yourself or a mix! As long as it can be connected to the themes used in that episode it can be linked up.
**the linky will remain open until the following Monday at 12pm. I will NOT accept any late entries this year unlike I did last year, simply because I am giving you an extra 12 hours!!!
** all entries must carry the Great Bloggers Bake Off badge if possible please and a link to my blog
**when you tweet your bake off recipe, please @JennyPaulin with the #greatbloggersbakeoff2014 hashtag and I will RT for you and add it to the pinboard.
**each week a blogger or bloggers will be selected as a Star Baker and will recieve a special badge to wear with pride on their blog.
**the next linky will open the following Wednesday as before but obviously with a new theme based on that evenings episode.
**the recipe linked up must not be one already posted on your blog – this is a bake along
This is not a serious linky at all (unless you make it so of course!). It is just for fun and any blogger is welcome to enter whatever their baking skills are and don’t be afraid to link up any disasters – credit will be given for effort too!
I received the Green & Blacks Chocolate as part of my Degustaboxuk delivery for August
linking up to Supergolden Bakes
