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!

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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.

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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/

A round-up of our top 5 biscuits and cookies recipes

We’ve been through our past year’s stats to find out what have been our most popular biscuits and cookies recipes. There’s a mixed bunch in the collection; both British and American recipes get a look in.

Scottish shortbread

A classic recipe brought to us by a classic home cook – Delia Smith. This is the recipe that I use as a starting point for most of my shortbread variations. It’s fair to say that this is probably the most popular of all our biscuits and cookies recipes.

Honey almond brittle biscuits

These thins are from a recipe I found in the Guardian; devised by Tamal Ray, a Great British Bake Off alumnus. Quick to bake and best eaten on the day of making – they lose their snap pretty quickly.

Gypsy Creams

I’m not sure of the origin of these biscuits. I think they’re British – but why are they called gypsy creams? These double-decker lovelies are full of oats, chocolate and golden syrup.

Butter-dipped biscuits

This recipe is for biscuits – but not the kind of biscuits that we’re accustomed to over here in the UK. These American biscuits are more closely related to our scones than anything else. Do you pronounce it ‘scons’ or ‘skowns’?

Salted butter chocolate chunk shortbread

This is the other shortbread recipe in our short-list. Our attempt at Alison Roman’s famous salted butter chocolate chunk shortbread recipe featured in a news round up in 2018, and this post went ballistic!

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Cakes & Bakes: Christmas spiced shortbread

We’re continuing with the festive theme for December’s Cakes & Bakes – this week’s recipe being delicious Christmas spiced shortbread.

These shortbreads have lots of plus points. They’re quite simple to prepare at this busy time of year, they look very attractive… and they fill the house with wonderful Christmas aromas too.

Simply combine all the ingredients together, press the pastry into moulds, release and bake.

They’d make a lovely home-made gift for someone special, wrap them up with pretty paper & string or present them in a glass jar decorated with ribbon, holly and/or fir cones. Alternatively, treat yourself to a batch – perfect with a warming cup of tea after a winter walk… or perhaps a glass of sweet sherry or port.

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Christmas spiced shortbread

2018-12-10 12:48:01

Ingredients

175g/6oz/¾ cup plain flour
50g/2oz/½ cup cornflour
1tsp mixed spice (or you could make your own from equal parts of ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger)
25g/1oz/¼ cup caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
25g/1oz/¼ cup soft brown sugar
115g/4oz/½ cup unsalted butter, chopped
1tsp vanilla paste

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas mark 3. Lightly flour the moulds (rice flour works well) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper
Sift the flour, cornflour and mixed into a mixing bowl. Mix in the sugars
Rub the butter and vanilla paste into the spiced flour & sugar mixture until it binds together and you can knead it into a soft dough
Place the dough into the mould and press to fit evenly and neatly (I went over it a couple of times with a rolling pin). Invert the mould on to the baking sheet and tap firmly to release the dough shape
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden in colour
Sprinkle the top of the shortbread with a little caster sugar and cool on a baking sheet
Cut the large rounds into 'petticoat tails' while still warm

Notes

We can attest that these are lovely with a little glass of sweet sherry!

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