Cakes & Bakes: Oat biscuits

Ahhh, tea and biscuits – one of life’s little pleasures… and an important one here at H is for Home headquarters!

And home-made biscuits, fresh from the oven, can take the enjoyment up a further notch or two. Justin requested a few for this week’s Cakes & Bakes offering, so I reached for this little tome from my cookery book collection. Favourite Biscuit Recipes offered up these lovely oat biscuits with soft brown sugar.

As with many home-made biscuits, recipe and method was pretty straightforward – and I knocked up this batch of 24 in less than an hour. The recipe says it makes 36 – however, my biscuit cutter is a tad larger than the 2 inch recommended.

They’re not fancy – just good, honest, rustic biscuits. I might reduce the bicarb of soda a touch when I next make them as I found the taste coming through a bit. However, they’re still delicious and should last us a few days… absolutely perfect with that aforementioned brew!

Click here or on the image below to save the oat biscuits recipe to Pinterest

Oat biscuits

2020-07-08 14:23:21

Yields 36

Cook Time

20 min

Cook Time

20 min

Ingredients

115g/4oz butter
115g/4oz brown sugar
170g/6oz rolled oats
170g/6oz flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsps milk

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Instructions

Set oven to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2
Grease/line baking sheets
Cream the butter and the sugar together in a bowl
Mix in ther oats and sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together into the mixture and mix thoroughly
Add sufficient milk to form the mixture into a stiffish dough
Turn out on to a floured surface, roll out the dough thinly and cut into rounds with a 5cm/2-inch cutter
Put on to the greased baking sheets and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown
Transfer to a wire rack to cool

Adapted from Favourite Biscuit Recipes

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Goosnargh cakes

Goosnargh is a village to the north of the city of Preston in Lancashire, not that far from where we used to live. So, surely, I should have heard of Goosnargh cakes then!

It was while we were listening to the Radcliffe & Maconie programme on 6Music a couple of weekends ago that Stuart discussed Goosnargh cakes; my curiosity was piqued! They’re not cakes, but biscuits; shortbread rounds spiced with caraway and/or coriander seeds. I wasn’t completely sold on the flavours, but thought I’d give them a try.

What are tosset cakes. Granny? Well, tosset cakes is the same as Goosnargh cakes, Garstang Fair cakes, Stalmine Club Cakes, and Pilling Cakes. They’re all the same, but different sizes and different names. Butter and sugar and flour, with spices and seeds, and not too much cooking, that’s all they were and very good and wholesome they were, too, I can tell you.
_{Lancashire Evening Post – Wednesday 27 July 1932}

Usually, I associate caraway seeds with savoury bread or crackers and coriander seeds with curry… not sweet biscuits. As it was a completely new taste experience, I decided to divide the caraway and coriander seeds into two separate batches.

Justin took his first bite (of the caraway seeded version) and exclaimed, “That’s a surprise!”. He explained that he wasn’t expecting a sweet shortbread to have that kind of flavour. However, after a couple more bites, surprise had given way to pleasure!

Once I’d tested both versions, I had to agree. I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy them, but I really did! I’ll be making them again… and perhaps even mix the caraway and coriander seeds next time!

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest

Goosnargh cakes

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Cook Time 20

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Ingredients

225 g/8oz unsalted butter
125 g/4½oz golden caster sugar plus more for sprinkling
350 g/12⅓oz plain flour
½ tsp ground coriander seeds
1½ tsp caraway seeds

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease or line two baking sheets with parchment paper
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Sift the flour over the creamed mix, add the coriander and caraway seeds, mix with wooden spoon until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs
Using your hand, work the mixture together to form smooth paste
Take out of the bowl and onto a floured work surface and knead gently so that dough is smooth and ready to roll out
Roll out to about ¼" thickness and, using a circular cutter, cut out rounds of dough
Place the rounds onto the baking sheets and sprinkle the tops with caster sugar
Put the baking sheets into the fridge for 30 minutes/1 hour until well chilled
Pop into oven and bake for 15-20 minutes until just turned golden brown
Remove from the oven and sprinkle with a little more caster sugar
Leave to cool slightly then transfer to a wire rack

Keyword biscuits, shortbread

Cakes & Bakes: Vegan gluten-free shortbread

Having specialist dietary requirements has become so much easier to live with in the past couple of years. If you’re vegan or gluten-free, you’re thankfully much more catered for in supermarkets and restaurants.

Since moving to Wales, I joined the local Women’s Institute in the village. The members take it in turns at each meeting to make the tea and provide the cake & biscuits. This week, it’s my turn! In the group, there are a few vegetarians, a vegan and someone with Coeliac disease. I decided I’d make two different things; one biscuit-y and one cake-y. The former would be vegan gluten-free shortbread. The latter, I’ll share on here next week.

Doves Farm produce a huge range of flours, one of which is a gluten-free plain white flour. It’s a blend of rice, potato, tapioca, maize and buckwheat flours. The lack of gluten means that the mixture can be unworkable and the biscuit too crumbly. To combat this, a minuscule amount of xanthan gum is added to the flour to help bind the dough and subsequent biscuit. In addition, I used Trex as the shortening. The brand doesn’t make it apparent on the packaging, however, it is completely vegan.

I used my favourite antique wooden mould, dusting it with rice flour which is gluten-free.

The recipe worked well; the dough came together and moulded with no trouble. The round released from the mould easily and slicing it into triangular ‘petticoat tails’ was a breeze.

If I were to make these again, I’d up the sugar content, perhaps sprinkling some granulated over the top just before they went into the oven.

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest

Vegan gluten-free shortbread

2020-01-14 18:11:13

Serves 8

Cook Time

45 min

Cook Time

45 min

Ingredients

200g/7oz gluten-free plain Flour
75g/2⅔oz caster sugar
¼ tsp xanthan gum
pinch of salt
1tbsp water
150g/5¼oz vegan block margarine (e.g. Trex)

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Instructions

Line a 15cmx20cm/6"x8" baking tray with parchment
Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F/Gas mark6
Put the flour, sugar, xanthan and salt into a blender and pulse to mix
Add the water and pulse to mix it with the flour
Chop the margarine into cubes, add this to the bowl and pulse until the dough holds together
Tip the mixture into your prepared baking tray/mould, pressing it into the corners and smoothing the top
Cover the dough and leave it to rest for 20 minutes
Cut the dough into rectangles. If you're using a mould, turn the dough out on to a parchment-lined baking sheet and cut into portions
Press the prongs of a fork into each slice
Bake for 20 minutes
Remove the tray from the oven and carefully cut the slices again, following the original lines
Press the fork prongs into the holes again
Return the shortbread to the oven and bake for a further 25 minutes
Allow the shortbread to cool on the baking tray for 20 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack to finish cooling
Store cold biscuits in an airtight container

Adapted from Doves Farm

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Price Points: Shortbread moulds

This week, I made Muscovado shortbread using my lovely, antique wooden shortbread mould. It’s featured in photographs from some of my previous shortbread recipes too.

Often, we’ve had people contact us asking if the mould in the pictures was for sale. No, sorry, it isn’t – it’s very happy at home here… however, here are a few other shortbread moulds that are!

Small wooden shortbread mould with Scottish thistle pattern: £14.99, Amazon
Kiko shortbread mould / baking stone: £18.99, eBay
Antique replica pomegranate heart cookie mould: £26.28 Etsy

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Prices & links correct at time of publication.

Small wooden shortbread mould with Scottish thistle pattern
£14.99

Kiko shortbread mould baking stone
£18.99