Bake of the week - Somerset Easter Biscuits (but it's not Easter i hear you say!!)

Today I thought I would have a go at baking some biscuits.  Somerset Easter Biscuits, the recipe is from The Great British Book of Baking.  I know it's not Easter yet but I had to try them as they sounded so tasty.  A butter-rich short dough flavoured with those ingredients associated with Easter; warm fragrant spices, dried fruit and candied peel.

These cookies were so tasty and smelt so great I was eating them before they even reached the cooling rack!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter, softened
75g caster sugar
1 medium, free range egg, separated
200g plain flour
a good pinch of salt
a good pinch of baking powder
half a teaspoon of ground mixed spice
half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
50g raisins (use small ones, not big juicy ones)
1 teaspoon of finely chopped mixed peel
extra caster sugar, for sprinkling

a 6.5cm fluted, round biscuit cutter
2 baking trays greased with butter



Prep 20 mins

Cook 12-15 mins

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°C/gas 6/180°C Fan

In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy, using a wooden spoon or an electric whisk or mixer.  (I used an electric mixer).  Gradually beat in the sugar and continue the beating for a couple of minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Add the egg yolk (save the egg white for the topping) and beat for a further minute.  Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, mixed spice and cinnamon into the bowl and stir until thoroughly combined.  Work in the raisins and chopped peel  with your hands to make a firm dough.

Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and roll out to about 5mm thick.  Cut into rounds using the fluted cutter, re-roll the trimmings and cut out more rounds until all the mix is used.  I had to lever each round off carefully with a flat bladed palette knife as even though the work surface was floured the mix still sticks a bit.

Arrange the biscuits, slightly apart on the greased baking trays.  Bake int he preheated oven for about 10 minutes (a bit less for a fan oven) until firm and pale golden.

Remove from the oven and lightly brush each biscuit with the gently whisked egg white, then sprinkle with a little caster sugar.  Return the biscuits to the oven and cook for a further 3 - 5 minutes (less for fan oven), until the tops are golden and crunchy.  Leave to cool on the trays for a minute then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, then try not to eat all the biscuits straight away!!

Store in an airtight container.

The recipe says that this will make 16 biscuits, I made over 20, although it went down to 16 quite quickly!

These cookies are really tasty and I think my husband will definitely agree, I am writing this blog at 9.40pm having made the biscuits this afternoon and there aren't many biscuits left already, will be making these again and maybe even do them at Easter too.