Baking with Sheena III: Ginger Biscuits

THESE THINGS ARE AMAZING.

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Thursday is Jamie's night out with the nerds, and there were no Poirots recorded that I haven't seen, so I rifled through Gran's recipes and found a tempting one: 

 

42. Peggy (Garpin) Ginger Biscuits

3/4 lb S.R. flour

1/2 lb castor sugar

3 oz syrup

4 oz butter or marg.

l level tsp. Bicar. of Soda

1 tsp gr. ginger

1 small egg

Melt sugar, butter + syrup in pan + add to all other ingredients.  Roll into small balls, place on baking tray.  Bake in mod. oven.

 

That's the recipe as transcribed exactly from her card.  I wish I had them here so I could take a picture of the original.  Garpin is either the name of a family or a farm.  I will consult the in-laws and update you.

 

Garpin Ginger Biscuits (Em's first try)  Yield: 31

8 oz castor sugar

3 oz golden syrup

4 oz salted butter

12 oz plain flour + 1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t ginger

1 medium egg

In a medium saucepan, heat sugar, butter and syrup until just melted.  Leave to cool for a few minutes until you can put your finger in it comfortably.  Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl, then pour in warm mixture and one pre-beaten egg.  Roll into smaller than usual balls, and bake at 350°F for fifteen minutes, or just until the inside of the cracks have turned the same brown as the rest of the cookie.

 

Verdict: Awesome.

 

Part of the delight of these family recipes is that they come with no picture, and also they're from a culture of which I'm not a native.  So who knows how they'll came out.  It was great to watch them through the oven door as they puffed up, then melted down, then formed cracks, then turned a deep golden brown.

 

I think I slightly overbaked the first dozen, and they ran into each other.  So for the second batch I used smaller balls on a bigger pan and took them out sooner.  The best example from the first batch is on the left, and from the second on the right.

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They are flat and crispy and sweet and gingery and just a bit caramelly from the syrup.  Would definitely make again.  Mmm.

 

 

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Baking with Sheena

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I found this recipe in Gran's recipe box.  I have no idea what a melting moment is, but the Rural seems to, so I have a batch of them in the oven. They smell like custard, which is both unsurprising and delightful.  I've copied the recipe verbatim from Gran's notecard:

 

Melting moments (S.W.R.I)

3 ozs. S.R. flour

3 ozs. marg.

1 oz. custard powder

1 oz. sugar

METHOD  Cream marg. and sugar.  Add flour and custard powder.  Form into balls, put on to a well greased tin.  Score on top with flat end of fork.  Bake in a good hot oven.  15-20 mins.

 

But I don't have margarine or self-raising flour, so I made some substitutions.  I also had to guess about exactly how hot a "good hot oven" is.  

 

Melting Moments (Em's first try)

3 oz plain flour

1/2 t baking powder

3 oz room-temperature butter

1 oz custard powder

1 oz sugar

Cream butter and sugar.  Add flour, baking powder, custard.  Form into 12 balls, shape like peanut butter cookies.  Bake 15 minutes at 180°C with the fan on. 

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Mmmm.  They are very short and very crumbly and not too sweet.  They would be very nice half-dipped in chocolate.  Next time I think I'll double the recipe.  Same amount of work for twice as many cookies?  Done.

 

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