White Chocolate and Cranberry Shortbread

Well, long time no see.  It has been a rather hectic few weeks since I last made an entry, all the way back in early November.  That's rather terrible but between teaching and paperwork there has been no time for anything else other than some dinner and not enough sleep.  Good news is, at the end of it all, I passed!  I am officially halfway through my course!  And now I'm on holiday for a few weeks (though there is a 4000 word essay to do...) and have plenty of baking planned since lack of funds means a lot of people are getting home baked presents.  Admittedly, a number of those will be some of my favourites featured in previous posts but I am determined to try something new whilst I have the chance.

In fact, that is what today's post is!  These were part of the gift bag I put together as a 'thank you' for the teacher whose class I have been working in the past 9 weeks.  Now I know I used cranberries and white chocolate together only a couple of posts ago but she likes that combination, and is a big shortbread fan so I knew that if I was going to bake her something it would have to contain all those elements.  Finding a recipe was pretty easy and the one I ended up using was pretty hassle free.  My only complaints would be that the dough was VERY sticky and that I had to cook them slightly longer than recommended.  Other than that though, I think they turned out rather well and were certainly less hassle than the last cookies I made.  It's definitely a recipe I'll be squirrelling away for future gift purposes.  

As my resident taste tester, the fiancé says the biscuits are beautifully sweet and crunchy like he thinks shortbread should be, and that the cranberries and white chocolate compliment each other beautifully.  Hopefully my mentor teacher enjoys them as much.

Recipe - adapted from taste.com
Makes about 36

• 250g/8oz butter
• 125g/4.5oz icing sugar
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g/10.5oz plain flour
• 75g/2.5oz dried cranberries
• 100g/3.5oz white chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 and line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl until it is very pale and creamy.
3. Stir in the flour, cranberries and chocolate chips and bring together to form a dough.  It will be quite sticky.
4. Roll tablespoon sized portions of dough into balls and place them on the prepared trays, spaced about 5cm/2inches apart.  Flatten slightly with a fork (you may wish to dip the fork in flour to prevent it sticking to the biscuits).
5. Chill the biscuits in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
6. Bake for 15-25 minutes (the original recipe said 15-18 but mine ended up needing 25) until the edges are just starting to turn golden and are slightly firm.  The middles will still feel soft.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to rest on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Lemon and Blueberry Shortbread Spirals

Not much has happened in the baking department this month, which is strange considering I spent half of it not having to go to work due to it being the school holidays.  I've just not felt terribly enthused to do so.  Or when I have I've been making stuff I've made before so I don't really have anything to post about.  

This week though I was determined to bake something.  Anything.  But preferably biscuits.  I enjoy making biscuits.  I was actually intending to make biscuits for me but ended up doing something for the fiancé instead since I had dried blueberries sitting in my cupboard that needed to be used up.  I decided I wanted to make lemon and blueberry biscuits.  Those two flavours have been successful in previous uses of the combination.  Plus the fiancé really likes lemon.  And since the orange shortbread turned out nice and has a good dough for shaping/cutting I thought I would just make a lemon version of that (minus the chocolate topping though).

As for the blueberry bit, as I said I had dried ones to use.  But rather than just mix them into the dough I thought it would be nice to make a spiral pattern with them, just to make it a little fancier.  My initial thought on how to do this was to roll the dough out flat, fill with blueberries and the roll up before slicing into biscuits.  That didn't work obviously.  The blueberries were too clumped together and made it difficult to roll the dough. Even when I could slice off a biscuit it just looked a mess, not a neat spiral.  So I pulled it all apart again and went about it in a different and much more effective manner.  I made sausages of dough, lined up blueberries along the and then rolled those up.  I got some lovely spirals as a result.  

The fiancé calls them 'more-ish'.  He says the two flavours blend well together, the biscuit is nice and crunchy and the berries are just the right texture: not too hard and not too chewy.  He was worried the berries would make the biscuits a bit soft but that wasn't the case.  He has to restrain himself from eating too many at a time since he likes them so much.

Recipe  - adapted from Rachel Allen's recipe for orange shortbread via 4Food

Makes about 20 

• 100g/3.5oz butter, softened and diced, plus extra for greasing
• 150g/5.3oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 50g/1.7oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 85g/3oz dried blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease two baking trays with butter.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl.
3. Dice up the butter and add to the flour, rubbing it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs and there are no large lumps of butter.
4. Add the sugar and the lemon extract and mix together until you get a stiff dough (you may need to use your hands).  Do not add any additional liquid.
5. Split the dough into 20 equal sized balls.  
6. Roll a ball of dough out into a thin sausage about 10-15cm/4-6inches in length.
7. Press blueberries gently along the top of the dough sausage.  Leave a gap of about 1cm/0.5inches between the first blueberry and the rest since it will make it easier to roll up.
8. Carefully roll the dough into a spiral with the blueberries wrapped inside.  Once fully rolled flatten slightly and then place on the prepared trays. 
9. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are golden.  They will still be a little soft in the centre when they come out but they do firm up as they cool.
10. Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool.

Chocolate Topped Orange Shortbread Hearts

Since the honey wheat bread had annoyed me with its refusal to turn out right the first two times, I was determined to bake something else alongside the third attempt that really ought to turn out fine.  So I decided on biscuits because I really like homemade biscuits and feel I've gotten much better at them over the last year.

I've been wanting to do an orange flavoured biscuits coated in chocolate for a while now.  The idea just sounds heavenly.  The recipe I chose was actually one I'd stumbled across a while ago but had forgotten about.  I just happened to chance upon it again whilst browsing for a good biscuit that was a bit crunchy.

I will admit, I intended to cover the entire biscuit in chocolate.  Unfortunately, I did a silly thing and left the chocolate unattended whilst I was melting it and it got a bit too hot, and so started seizing up.  I managed to rescue it with some whisking, which got it smooth again, but it was too thick for dipping properly and I just could not get it to thin out.  So I had to settle for just covering the tops.  The fiancé thinks this is a better idea though because otherwise you'd get chocolate over your hands when trying to eat it.  I did make sure to watch the white chocolate though, so it was runny enough to drizzle.  I've still not got the hang of drizzling.  It always looks messy.  I've opted for quickly shaking the spoon back and forth over the biscuit I'm decorating.  Maybe I should have used the old standby of putting it in a piping bag?  Oh well, they were just for me and the fiancé to enjoy anyway.  No need to be overly neat in that case.

I made one slight change to the recipe, which was I used orange extract rather than zest.  I don't keep oranges in my house and buying one for the sake of the zest seems wasteful, especially as I have extract just sitting in my cupboard.  I also like the flavour my extract gives things.  So lovely and orangey.  I don't think it hurt that it meant I added a tiny bit of liquid to the dough, helping it form together better.  I also found the commenters on the original recipe were right about the baking time being longer than suggested, so will be making that amendment in my write-up.

What can I say about the taste, other than they are so GOOD!  Honestly, they are just delicious.  You get a lovely burst of orange when you bite into the crunchy biscuit, and then it's quickly followed by the lovely creamy chocolate and it blends nicely together.  I loved them, as did the fiancé and they're pretty much gone now.  They barely lasted two days, and that's because we were being fairly restrained.  I will definitely be making these again at some point.

Recipe - adapted from Rachel Allen via 4Food

Makes about 24 biscuits

• 100g/3.5oz butter, softened and diced, plus extra for greasing
• 150g/5.3oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 50g/1.7oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp orange extract (or zest of 1 orange)
• 85g/3oz milk chocolate
• 40g/1.4oz white chocolate
• Orange blossom tint powder (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease two baking trays with butter.
2. Sift the flour into a large bowl.
3. Dice up the butter and add to the flour, rubbing it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs and there are no large lumps of butter.
4. Add the sugar and the orange extract and mix together until you get a stiff dough (you may need to use your hands).  Do not add any additional liquid.
5. Lightly dust a worktop and rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough until about 5mm/0.25inch thick.
6. Use a 6.5cm/2.5inch heart shaped cutter to cut out biscuits from the dough, transferring them to the greased trays with a palette knife or spatula.  Be sure to space them evenly apart.  I got 12 on each tray.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the edges are golden.
8. Remove and leave on the trays for one minute, before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
9. Whilst the biscuits cool, melt the milk chocolate by breaking it into pieces and placing in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
10. Dip the top side of the biscuits in the chocolate, shaking to removed the excess.  If you want, you can use a knife to smooth it out.  Place back on the wire rack to set. 
11. Melt the white chocolate in the same way as the milk chocolate.  If using, stir in the orange blossom tint.
12. Place a sheet of baking parchment beneath the wire rack to catch any drips, and then drizzle the white chocolate over the top of the biscuits.  Leave to set.

Marbled Millionaire Shortbread

I've been wanting to make this since the middle of last week.  I was just reading recipes and suddenly had a craving for it.  Unfortunately I had no condensed milk and had to wait until I got a chance to go to the big supermarket to get some.  I also did not have the right type or size of tray and didn't get a trip to Lakeland in Edinburgh until Tuesday.  Admittedly, I had specifically chosen Tuesday myself the week before since one of my favourite authors was signing books in the Waterstone's on Princes Street that day, so it's my own fault I had to wait.  Then there was finding a time to make it.  Yesterday my boyfriend had work so it seemed a perfect time because it would keep me amused and distract me from being lonely.

For the most part it turned out okay.  The underside of the shortbread got burnt in some places.  My oven temperature is clearly uneven.  I'm going to need to get an oven thermometer.  I really wasn't sure if the caramel was right.  I did everything it said and it thickened up but I didn't know what colour it ought to be and I thought it was a bit pale.  I'm also a bit undecided on the taste of it myself.  My boyfriend says it's fine, if a bit gooey.  It is ridiculously gooey.  The chocolate came out fab.  The marbling effect looked so cool!  Here's a shot of it before I cut it up:

I have discovered a love of marbling it seems.  So a mixed bag of results really.  I personally do not like it because of the caramel.  My boyfriend says they taste fine, even the slightly burnt pieces.  I'll be offering some up to his friends tomorrow so we'll see how it goes.  As long as someone likes it and it gets eaten, I'll be happy.

Recipe - adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

For the shortbread:

• 250g/9oz plain flour
• 75g/3oz caster sugar
• 175g/6oz butter

 For the caramel

• 100g/4oz butter
• 100g/4oz light muscovado sugar
• 2 x 397g/14oz cans of condensed milk

For the topping:

• 100g/4oz milk chocolate
• 100g/4oz white chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 then grease and line a 33 x 23cm/13 x 19inch swiss roll tin.
2.  Mix the flour and the sugar together in a large bowl.
3. Add the butter and rub it into the sugar and flour with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. Knead the mixture together into a dough then press into the tin.  You might think you don't have enough but you will be able to fill the tin with a fairly thin layer of shortbread.
5. Prick the dough all over with a fork and then put in the oven to bake for about 20 minutes.  The shortbread should be firm to the touch after this time.
6. Remove and cool in the tin.
7. Make the caramel by putting all its ingredients in a saucepan and heating gently until the sugar dissolves.
8. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, before reducing to a simmer for about 5 minutes.  You must keep stirring and make sure your spoon scrapes the bottom of the pan or the caramel will catch and burn.  The mixture will darken as you cook it and should take on a thicker consistency.
9. When ready, remove from the heat and pour over the shortbread.  Leave it to cool.
10. Melt the chocolate in two separate bowls over saucepans of hot water.
11. When melted, spoon each type onto the cooled caramel in an alternating pattern.
12. Run a skewer gently through the chocolate, particularly over the edges where the two chocolate types meet, to create the marble pattern.
13. Leave to set.
14. Cut the shortbread into squares or blocks.  I did this whilst it was still in the tin but you can take it out to cut if you want.

Shortbread

My Jammie Dodger-ish jam tarts gave me cravings for the actual thing so I wanted to try and make a home made version.  Looking into exactly what type of biscuit a Jammie Dodger is, I learnt it is shortbread.  Thus I went hunting for a shortbread recipe.  Turns out, originally it was just flour, butter and sugar.  However, over time other things were added to create different textures.  I ended up going with a recipe that incorporated cornflour because it makes a nice melt-in-the-mouth biscuit.  And it does.  Unfortunately, the dough I ended up with was too soft to cut shapes from so in the end I just had to make shortbread.  No Jammie Dodger clones this time but it is still on my to-do list.  I'll just need to find a different recipe.

Recipe - adapted from Sue Lawrence's Recipe

Made 32 small petticoat tails

• 175g/6oz butter
• 85g/3oz caster sugar
• 200g/7oz plain flour
• 50g/1.75oz cornflour

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2 and grease/line two 18cm/7 inch circular tins or two baking trays (I did the latter because I was expecting to make something else).
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until really smooth and creamy.  This takes about 10 minutes by hand and results in a sore arm.
3. Sift the two flours together in a separate bowl.
4. Add the flour to the butter mix a spoonful at a time and mix.  Only add the next spoonful after the first is fully incorporated.
5. When all the flour is in, bring it together with your hands and split into two balls. 
6. Gently roll out into two circles just smaller than your tins (if you're using them).   I put mine between clingfilm to stop them sticking to the rolling pin.  It also made transferring it to the trays easier.
7. Prick all over with a fork, making sure the fork goes right through to the bottom.  The press around the edges, again with a fork.
8. Put in the oven.  The recipe says to bake for 35-40 minutes but I'd say you could leave it in a bit longer as I don't think mine cooked right the way through.  Only another 2-5 minutes though.
9. When it's removed from the oven it will still be soft so be careful.  Leave on the trays/in the tins but place them on wire racks.  At this point you should cut each circle into 16 pieces.  If you want to, sprinkle sugar over them.  Leave to cool for 20 minutes.
10. After 20 minutes, carefully remove from tins/trays and place on the wire racks to finish cooling.  They harden up as they cool.

 

Consensus was that these were yummy.  Shame the box I put them in wasn't very good since they'd gone soft today.