52 New Things - Week Eleven

As week eleven drew in I could feel myself on the cusp of giving in to this cold that has been going round. Well, that's my excuse for picking a relatively relaxed task this week; baking biscuits. I've wanted to try a particular recipe out for ages. It's a really old one, and I remember my mum making these each Christmas when I was young. A couple of years ago my mum gave me the book with the recipe in and it's taken me this long to try it! The book is The Good Housekeeping's 'Basic Cookery' Book, and this addition was published in 1956 so is almost 65 years old!

It's fun to flick through the book and see what they were making back in the 50's. In the book they show you how to pluck your own chicken, make your own soup with what you have to hand, but the most impressive section is the part dedicated to cakes. I think half the book must focus on cakes, and there's so many options to pick, from rock cakes, Madeleines, Christmas cakes,  and even a 'make your own three tier wedding cake'! 

The recipe I wanted though was the one for Finnish Ginger Biscuits. I remember these being amazing when I was a kid. Not too crunchy like ginger nuts can be, but slightly soft in the middle, and more crispy on the outside. Now I had the chance to see if I could match my childhood memories! I gathered the ingredients and was pleased to see that it all seemed very simple to make.

You melt the butter, golden syrup and sugar in a pan, without boiling. Then at the same time sieve the flour, spices and baking powder together. So far, so good. Once the butter has melted, mix the two until you form a nice dough. Mine did seem a bit sloppy so I had to add a little bit more flour, but once I had done that it looked okay, and smelt lovely.

The book says you should leave the dough for an hour, or better overnight, so I left mine overnight and went back to it first thing he next morning. I have no idea why it says to leave it. It's not like bread, it doesn't need to rise, and mine looked exactly the same as when I had left it. So now it was time to make my biscuits! 

My baking equipment is still pretty basic (because I never do any) so in the absence of a rolling pin and cookie cutter I had to improvise with what I had to hand! The wine glass worked particularly well in making uniform biscuits though. I was a little worried with the first batch as I didn't have any greaseproof paper so I thought I'd be scrapping biscuits off the tray but after 15 minutes in the oven they slipped off the tray and onto a wire rack to cool. They look pretty good don't you think?

And they tasted just like I remembered. Well almost, they could have been a bit softer in the middle, but the gingery-ness was spot on. They smell whilst they were cooking made the house feel so Christmassy that I decided to get the Christmas decorations out and set them up so I could eat the biscuits with my Yule Cat (Jólaköttur) looking on. A perfect way to start the season. I've even invested in a gingerbread man cookie cutter so the people at work will be getting some of these soon!