Light/ Dark: Bad Karma Biscuits
So the theme this week: Light/dark. We’ll kick off with dark….
I didn’t want this blog to be a whinge fest and I wanted it to be about things I like and enjoy… but then on Friday the fat man in the blue suit pushed in front of me while I was waiting to get on the tube and I got thinking some dark thoughts… and basically it was just a very angry tube ride home. And so the bad karma biscuits* were born (*also known as stamped shortbread)
So where does the bad karma come in? Well I guess the irony of this whole post is that the angry thoughts I stamped onto my biscuits kinda disappeared during the baking process. More dark thoughts. On the up side – this shortbread is beyond delicious. It’s so good you’ll eat a load, feel sick, but fight through the nausea just so you can eat more. Also it’s really easy to make.
Ingredients
– 225g unsalted butter softened (plus a bit extra for greasing) (Tip – if your butter isn’t soft, put it between two sheets af baking paper and bash it with a rolling pin to soften it. Works a treat)
– 110g caster sugar
– 225 g plain flour
– 110g corn flour
– pinch of salt
1. Lightly butter two baking trays or line with baking paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and cornflour into the bowl. Add the salt. Mix together until combined (I did this step in a stand mixer and it became the consistency of breadcrumbs. I then worked it further with my hands and it started to combine better). Tip mixture onto a lightly floured surface and need to form a soft dough.
3. Roll out the dough between two pieces of baking paper to a thickness of 1cm. OK so if you want to stamp your biscuits, now is the time to do it. I initially wanted to use the metal stampers that I used in my “green(ish) plant markers post”. But these didn’t work – the letters were too small and the dough too coarse. So in the end I just used a set of rubber stamps I had. These didn’t work as well as I would have liked. But you know what – they do the job and I think they are pretty cool. If you want a clearer stamp then what I have deduced is that you will need stamps that will allow you to leave a deep imprint on the dough. You probably need something like a set of those cookie stampers they sell in cooking shops – only I don’t want my biscuits stamped with “handmade”. If you can’t tell my supremely delicious biscuits are not made with wonderful ingredients and are not massed produced – well I have a “sod off” biscuit waiting for you). Cut the biscuits to the size you want.
4. Put the shortbread on the prepared trays and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
5. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
6. Bake the shortbread for about 20 minutes – until just golden brown on the edges. Leave on the baking trays for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
There you have it Light/Dark Bad Karma Biscuits.
(Recipe adapted from Paul Hollywood’s “How to Bake”)
