My fear when starting a blog was that I’d write one post and
forget the password to the backend of it. Turns out my real challenge is more
to do with writing the post, once the recipe has been followed and tweaked.
Nonetheless, I’m going easy on myself. New job, winter (Southern Hemisphere)
etc.
New job. Because I work Sundays, I have Tuesdays off.
Lovely. Winter. Cold weather sparked my
almost forgotten obsession with ginger. I lifted this recipe from a book
belonging to my flatmate, made some minor adjustments, and quelled the desires
of the ginger fuelled monster within. Lovely.
These ginger-almond biscuits embody all of what I consider
to be important in a biscuit. They are crisp, not too sweet and use fresh
ginger (not the powdery stuff, I really don’t like that).
100g butter
120g castor sugar
120g treacle sugar
2 eggs
300g self-raising ground
100g ‘nibbed’ almonds (flaked almonds also work, I found
they got a bit ‘lost’, but some people prefer them less obstrusive)
2 (lady) thumb sized pieces of ginger (peeled) (I grate mine
on the mini grater setting, you could chop it finely- if there are little hairy
strings- fret not, remove any thick looking ones, but for the most part, they
dissolve into your biscuit upon baking)
Preheat the oven to 180.
Beat the butter,
both sugars and eggs. I used regular salted butter, I have used unsalted for this
recipe before but didn’t find the result warrants the price difference. My
trusty KenwoodChef is one of the most notable items I own. Manfriend’s
grandmother gave it to me (along with her sewing machine!) not very long in to
our relationship. And it has been a joy to use. I know, it’s not fire-engine
red and shiny or powder blue and oozing vintage charm-but it’s mine and heck!
It’s bloody wonderful.
Stir in the flour,
nuts and ginger and mix well.
Place tablespoons of the mixture onto a baking sheet and
flatten them slightly, using wet fingers.
Pop into the oven for 12 minutes (or turning golden around
the edges)
While warm, place onto a cooling rack, to encourage maximum
crispiness.
I made a fairly large batch. Flatmate and I have a
particularly large cookie jar(it sits next to an equally large marshmallow
jar), but this recipe yields 30 biscuits.
Thanks to Manfriend-of-Flatmate for the handmaking of the cork trivet used in pictures. Very creative. Jolly good.
