Entry 33: Gingerbread and Mortal Terror

Hello Koala fans,

Last week was my niece’s 2nd birthday (happy birthday Lily!) and because she is a fan of Sooty and Sweep, I thought I’d have a try at making some gingerbread Sootys for her. For those that are unfamiliar with the show, Sooty is a little yellow bear that lives with a small grey dog and the world’s most eloquent panda:

The Koala tried auditioning for the show once but was turned down after trying to assassinate Sooty with a didgeridoo.

That was the plan at any rate. After shopping around at my local supermarkets I didn’t have much luck with finding any gingerbread cutters, so the plan changed to gingerbread Sooty heads. I’m not entirely sure what my niece would have made of people eating her favourite TV show character but I’m sure a therapist would have a field day with it. At this point, I only had a day or two to make them prior to her birthday party so much like the rest of the house, I was rushing around trying to get things done. On top of all that, a mysterious parcel arrived in the post for me:

I’d love to see what’s inside but I have baking to do….

As I gathered the ingredients together I heard a strange sound coming from my front door:

*insert growling*

Given that I didn’t want the postman to get savaged (again), I picked up the Koala and took him to the kitchen where we set to work:

I categorically deny having to buy a second bag of chocolate buttons because the first disappeared.

The reason I went with gingerbread biscuits is due to the colouration, which is fairly similar to Sooty’s fur colour and because it should be easier to shape. I looked at two different gingerbread recipes for this and I got a little confused when I was buying the ingredients. Once recipe called for dark treacle and dark brown sugar; the other called for golden syrup and light brown sugar.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gingerbread_men_99096 (Light)

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/475435/The-Hummingbird-Bakery-gingerbread-men (Dark)

What happened was that I picked up dark brown sugar and golden syrup and went with the Light recipe. Would this affect the flavour and texture? Only one way to find out.

What’s wrong with this picture?

The answer is that there is a large bar of chocolate right next to the Koala – and it’s completely untouched. Clearly something was bothering him. What was bothering me was the looming party and a lot of worry. I’ve never tried icing gingerbread before and I was anxious about how well they would look at the end. I also became a little unsure of my ingredients again. With the spices, I used 2 tsp of ginger, 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of mixed spice. The last was only used in the Dark recipe.

“Are you just making this up as you go along?”

Truth be told, although I had got the ingredients a little mixed up, I was starting to feel more settled at this point. By using dark treacle, the gingerbread would have been thick and stodgy; but on the other hand, it would have had some interesting extra flavours. If I had gone with the straightforward Light recipe, the dough would be much lighter but the flavour would not have been as interesting. Returning to the topic at hand, I mixed the flour, sugar and spices together using my fingers. I found that mixing the dough this way made the dough crumbs smaller and more even than if I had used a spoon. The mixture was still dry, so it was time to bind it together with the egg and golden syrup.

*glug glug glug*

Classy.

Once the dough was bound together, it was time to stick it in the fridge for a while. In previous dough recipes, I’ve only left the dough in the fridge for about 15 minutes or so. This time, I left it for a full hour. This did make quite a difference when it came to handling it and was more agreeable when it came to rolling it out and cutting out the shapes.

Not a cookie-cutter recipe.

There’s a lot of flour in that photo. The dough, even after time in the fridge was still very sticky. Using the flour helped when it came to lifting the biscuits off the board, although I suspect I may have gone a little bit over the top:

“You think?!”

The biscuits didn’t actually take that long to bake. I’d preheated the oven for about an hour, so after 15 minutes inside, the biscuits were done:

The gingerbread biscuits. With flour.

I tried one of the biscuits about 5 minutes after they came out of the oven and they tasted *fantastic*. They had a sort of cookie-like texture to them, which made for a wonderful change from the rock solid gingerbread biscuits you often get in supermarkets. I could taste the fruit flavours from the dark brown sugar but it didn’t overwhelm the spices or the honey notes from the golden syrup. Possibly a little overboard with the spices but otherwise perfect. Which kind of led me to a dilemma – do I put icing and chocolate drops and all that on the biscuits and risk messing up the flavour, or leave them au naturelle? I went with the latter option in the end as I had almost run out of time. One thing I have learned is that while appearances are important when it comes to baking, taste comes above all other considerations. One day, I’ll be able to get both nailed down. =)

 

****

Later that night…

Just as the Koala and I were about to drift off to sleep, I heard noises coming from downstairs. More specifically, the kitchen…

What the hell was in this parcel?!

Whatever it was, it had broken free and was even now rummaging through my ingredients and equipment…

Goddamn it – *I* wanted those chocolate buttons!

The sounds were coming from inside the fridge.

I am so screwed.

Entry 28: That Takes The Biscuit

Hello Koala fans!

One of the things people often ask me is why I bake when it’s often easier and cheaper just to get things from the supermarket. I’ve mentioned a few of those reasons in the About section but mainly I run this blog because I find baking enjoyable and because I never know what my creations will turn out like. For example, a couple of weeks back, my sister mentioned that she liked Jammie Dodgers. I don’t mind them myself but there’s nothing particularly special about them. The “jam” in the centre often seems more like glue than something that used to contain fruit. With this in mind, I thought I’d have a try at making my own version and see how they stack up against the supermarket version.

The recipe comes from one of those dirt cheap baking books that you see in bookshops for a couple of pounds, so I don’t think I’ll get in too much trouble if I “borrow” the recipe. The book in question is part of a series by Good Eating, with this particular one being “Baking”.

The neat thing is that all of these ingredients you probably have already.

To give you the full list:

• 225 grams butter – slightly softened
• 140 grams caster sugar
• 1 egg – separated into yolk and white
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 280 grams of plain flour

And for the filling:

• 55 grams of butter – softened
• 100 grams icing sugar
• 5 tbsp of whatever flavour jam you like =3

The first step is to get all your ingredients weighed out and prepared; we’ll be starting with the biscuits themselves.

“226 grams?! Way to go completely overboard with the butter!”

You’re aiming to make a sort of cookie dough with the first set of ingredients beginning by beating the butter and caster sugar together until it’s nice and fluffy:

Fluffy but I wouldn’t go as far as to call him “nice”.

Once you’ve creamed together the butter and sugar, tip in the vanilla extract and the egg yolk:

The yolk was sent into egg-cile from the rest of the egg.

When I’m cooking, I usually try to go for local goods or organic stuff. There is a definite improvement in taste and it’s generally better for the environment. That said, if genetic engineering wants to come up with an egg that only contains white and another that only contains yolk, I won’t quibble too much. Separating can be an awfully messy process.

“Are we still talking about eggs or your last relationship?”

Once the egg has been added, fold in the flour a little bit at a time. Doing it this way means you won’t get any huge clumps of flour and a more even dough mix. Once the dough looks about ready, divide it in half and wrap each ball in clingfilm. Put the dough in the fridge for an hour or so, along with any lippy kitchen assistants you may have.

After some time out in the fridge, the Koala was more chilled out.

The dough should be fairly firm by now and ready to be rolled out into biscuits. Although the Koala is my main assistant in the kitchen, for particularly complex tasks, I have to seek outside assistance:

Hi Lilly! ^_^

My rather adorable 2 year old niece helped me cut out the biscuit bases and did a sterling job of it. Thinking about it, if you’re looking to introduce your own kids to the fun world of baking, this isn’t a bad recipe to start off with.

“Why is it your two year old niece left the kitchen in a tidier state than you usually do?”

This is where it starts to get a little complicated. Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 5/ 180 C and give it about 15 mins to warm up. Stamp out the rest of the biscuits while you wait. Put the bases in the oven for 15 minutes, turning if needed.

“It’s nice to see an apple corer being used for something unhealthy.”

With the rings, put them in for 7 minutes. Take them out and then brush them with the egg white and sprinkle a little sugar over the top of them. Once that’s done, back in the oven for another 7-10 minutes.

A brush with greatness.

Once the baking is done, it’s time to start working on assembly. As you’ve probably gathered from the ingredient list for the filling, these jam rings have icing in the centre, unlike most Jammie Dodgers. It depends which brand you like. Mix the icing sugar and butter together until its as light and whippy as you can make it. I found spreading it on the biscuits was a pain in the butt; however it was slightly easier using a palette knife.

Jammie devil with jammie dodgers.

Warm the jam up slightly so that it’s easier to spoon onto the icing. You don’t need to measure this, just trust your own judgement. Once the jam is on, quickly press a ring over the whole lot and you should end up with something similar to the picture above.

The Japanese ring biscuits summon a creepy girl covered in preserve.

I split the biscuits in half – one batch for my sister, one batch for mum, dad and myself. Our batch was gone in 2 days; I’m not sure how long my sister’s batch lasted. It’s probably just pride talking but I vastly prefer the homemade sort to the supermarket jam rings. The biscuit is richer and slightly softer and the icing and jam go fantastically together. I think my sister enjoyed her batch as well but were they good enough to make her swear off the supermarket version? We’ll see….