It feels like I lost my baking mojo for a while. Posts became less frequent and I stopped baking every week. This was partly because I was busy doing other things, and partly because I just didn't feel like cultivating my baking hobby.
Baking the Happy Cake has reignited my love of baking, and has reminded me that the time consuming bakes are often the most enjoyable (see my Eight Layer Kahlua Cake). Baking also feels quite therapeutic (as long as everything is going to plan...); recently it has helped me get back into my groove after feeling adrift - in several areas of my life - for some months now.
I chose to make these biscuits because cutting shapes out of dough is fun. I have a dinosaur cutter from some Piñata Biscuits I made a few years back, so I made a few dinosaurs as well as some more traditional circles. I adapted my recipe for Cinnamon Biscuits, and aside from the obvious I substituted some whisky as the liquid because I wanted the subtle background flavor that it passes on so well in baking.
Makes 20 Circles/Approx. 10 Dinosaurs
Ingredients
- 175g Plain Flour
- 80g Butter
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 100g White Chocolate
- 1 Egg Yolk
- 3 Tbsp Whisky
- Preheat the oven to 180C/165C fan and line two baking trays with baking parchment.
- Dump the flour, butter and caster sugar in a bowl.
- Rub the ingredients together with the tips of your fingers until all the ingredients have combined to produce a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs.
- Finely chop the chocolate and stir it into the mixture.
- Stir in the egg yolk and whisky, then push the mixture together to form a dough.
- Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 mins.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface to 1cm thickness, or as thin as the chocolate will allow.
- Cut out pieces of dough using cookie cutters (I used a 1.5in diameter shot glass to cut the circles), rolling out the waste cuttings until all of the dough has been shaped.
- Place the pieces of dough onto the baking trays, placed evenly apart.
- Cover with cling film and refrigerate for another 30 mins (this ensures that the biscuits keep their shape).
- Remove the cling film and bake the biscuits for 12-15 minutes, or until they start to turn gold. They won't harden until they have cooled outside the oven!
- Cool on a wire rack.
Laura at I'd Much Rather Bake Than... holds the monthly Biscuit Barrel Challenge. This month the challenge is to bake some comfort food, as long as it fits into a biscuit barrel. I'm entering these biscuits as they are comforting to me for the reasons mentioned above, and because who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies?!
