Happy New Year!!
I am wary of making New Year’s Resolutions because occasionally I break them….all the time. My lists from when I was younger are cringy- ‘be more me’, ‘ask him out’ and the very ambiguous… ‘be cooler’. This year I have steered clear of any concrete goals, but have written in my 2014 diary that it would be a good idea to try out more of my own recipes.
So this week I have been obsessing over a very particular type of biscuit. In my days as an MA student, I would frequently stock up on biscuits to see me through that 3 am slump in the library. The 3am slump traditionally happened when I would realise that I had simply written ‘add footnote’ during the early stages of the essay. Being unable to recall where this came from, when I found or, or who I should attribute it too, it was traditional for me to shut my eyes, reach for the biscuits and just gently remind myself why I was doing a Masters anyway. Largely this would be because it was too bloody expensive to jack it in and become a plumber (genuinely respect and envy plumbers, and and I am dangerously under-qualified for this to be my dream), so I would continue, thinking about my other, brilliant life of fixing drain blockages and having loads of cash.
Anyway- this is not a blog about my life decisions, luckily, so more about the biscuits. They are pear and dark chocolate, gluten-free, which I usually find a bit weird, but these are glorious . The library sold them in small packets of two…wickedly expensive, but gorgeous, and since I can’t find a box of them anywhere, I thought I would try to make them.
But being completely unsure of the recipe, and not knowing where to start tried three ideas out, with varying results. So, in the style of an Arctic explorers journal, only much less impressive, I have documented my attempts here.
All three start with this recipe for Viennese Fingers, from Woman and Home online.
Ingredients
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 25g icing sugar
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 100g plain flour
- 1tsp cornflour
- 1/4tsp baking powder
- 100g milk chocolate, chopped
You will also need:
- A baking tray lined with baking parchment and a piping bag fitted with a medium star nozzle
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3
- Tip the butter and sugar into the bowl of a freestanding mixer and beat until pale and light. Add the vanilla extract and mix again. Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder into the bowl and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined
- Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a medium star nozzle and pipe 10cm-long fingers onto the prepared baking tray. Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 10–15 minutes until pale golden
- Remove from the oven and cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack until completely cold.
So once you are here, you have three options.
Option One
This was my favourite. Cool the biscuits. Mix a tub of pear puree with enough icing sugar to give it a glace icing consistency. Pipe this down the centre of each biscuit. Put in fridge until firm, then cover the icing completely with dark chocolate. My camera broke during this….as you can see.
Result: Crunchy, Sort of pearish, delicious
Option Two
After baking, pipe a line of icing down the middle, and sandwich two together. Refrigerate. Dip half in chocolate.
Result: Much more peary, less crunchy, still delicious.
Option Three
Add an extra 50 grammes of flour to the mix and 1 1/2 tubs of the pear puree. Bake as normal. Dip the base in chocolate.
Result: Soft, peary- but a bit weird…..sort of grows on you.
Tried this one with Gluten-Free flour as well, not sure what the effects were, but they are still, you know…..biscuits.
I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and have an amazing new year xxx
Stay Unchained<3
Unchained Baking 