Enough with this cake business, I have decided to embark on some biscuit alteration. My best biscuits are probably the 'wine biscuits' from Dr Oetker, so I thought I should try something with those. But what? Pondering the sweetie shelves, I came across my beloved sherbet fountains (in new packaging-of which more later). What accompanies sherbet, in tingliness? Why Barrats refreshers of course!
Stage 1 Make the dough. This is very easy indeed, especially with the mighty magimix. The breadcrumb like stage is meant to be combined with wine, instead of a tablespoon of water. As much as the ringbearer and I enjoy necking a bottle of left over wine, it always seems atrocious to open a bottle just for a few ml, which you can't taste anyway. I therefore switched to German grappa, which not only tastes stronger but we have a bottle of and rarely drink. Once the dough was made it was rolled out and cut into circles.
Stage 2 Refresher tests. Would refreshers survive the cooking temperature? Sure, they only needed to last about 15 minutes, but would they degrade? I therefore popped 1 in with the jacket potatoes. 30 minutes later the flat stunk of burned sugar as the blackened remains of the refreshers was removed from the oven. Not a good sign, but the jackets were in at a higher temperature, the refreshers were cooked for longer on the wrong substrate/matrix than they would on the biscuits, plus I have never let one very clear indicator of possible failure stop me before....
Stage 3 Topping. The rounds were then covered in beaten egg white, sprinkled with sugar or sherbet and then decorated with chopped almonds and/or halves of refreshers. I also cunningly hid the refreshers under the egg white, as a sort of initial blast cover. the biscuits were then baked in batches. At this point we must digress to
the new sherbet fountain packaging.
Plastic? Aren't we meant to be caring for the environment? Sure the paper sometimes got a bit soggy, but that was part ofthe art of consumption. The only reason I can think that Tangerine confectionery chose this atrocious environmentally disastrous, untraditional, quick and easy packaging for the lazy and slobby is that it allows you to replace the top and save your sherbet. Save your sherbet? When did obesity fears outweigh the importance of elegant eating and the environment? And who leaves a half eaten piece of liquorice for later? YUK!
Results. Score one for optimistic disdain of rough-shod scientific tests! The Refreshers survived unburnt, especially those hidden by egg white. Personally I could only just about taste the sherbet, which manifested as a slight extra-tang. However the refreshers were very potent and tasty. Certainly these biccies are unsophisticated and quite frankly taste a little loopy, but I liked them. The ringbearer, once he had gotten over his disappointment that a vast cake wasn't appearing from the oven (also his delight that the flat didn't fill with stinking burning refresher again) deigned to taste the biccies. He claimed they were like 'An outbreak of sunshine on a biscuit base', but mumbled a bit about whether he thought they were better than the sugar and almond original.
Enough with this cake business, I have decided to embark on some biscuit alteration. My best biscuits are probably the 'wine biscuits' from Dr Oetker, so I thought I should try something with those. But what? Pondering the sweetie shelves, I came across my beloved sherbet fountains (in new packaging-of which more later). What accompanies sherbet, in tingliness? Why Barrats refreshers of course!
Stage 1 Make the dough. This is very easy indeed, especially with the mighty magimix. The breadcrumb like stage is meant to be combined with wine, instead of a tablespoon of water. As much as the ringbearer and I enjoy necking a bottle of left over wine, it always seems atrocious to open a bottle just for a few ml, which you can't taste anyway. I therefore switched to German grappa, which not only tastes stronger but we have a bottle of and rarely drink. Once the dough was made it was rolled out and cut into circles.
Stage 2 Refresher tests. Would refreshers survive the cooking temperature? Sure, they only needed to last about 15 minutes, but would they degrade? I therefore popped 1 in with the jacket potatoes. 30 minutes later the flat stunk of burned sugar as the blackened remains of the refreshers was removed from the oven. Not a good sign, but the jackets were in at a higher temperature, the refreshers were cooked for longer on the wrong substrate/matrix than they would on the biscuits, plus I have never let one very clear indicator of possible failure stop me before....
Stage 3 Topping. The rounds were then covered in beaten egg white, sprinkled with sugar or sherbet and then decorated with chopped almonds and/or halves of refreshers. I also cunningly hid the refreshers under the egg white, as a sort of initial blast cover. the biscuits were then baked in batches. At this point we must digress to the new sherbet fountain packaging.
Plastic? Aren't we meant to be caring for the environment? Sure the paper sometimes got a bit soggy, but that was part ofthe art of consumption. The only reason I can think that Tangerine confectionery chose this atrocious environmentally disastrous, untraditional, quick and easy packaging for the lazy and slobby is that it allows you to replace the top and save your sherbet. Save your sherbet? When did obesity fears outweigh the importance of elegant eating and the environment? And who leaves a half eaten piece of liquorice for later? YUK!
Results. Score one for optimistic disdain of rough-shod scientific tests! The Refreshers survived unburnt, especially those hidden by egg white. Personally I could only just about taste the sherbet, which manifested as a slight extra-tang. However the refreshers were very potent and tasty. Certainly these biccies are unsophisticated and quite frankly taste a little loopy, but I liked them. The ringbearer, once he had gotten over his disappointment that a vast cake wasn't appearing from the oven (also his delight that the flat didn't fill with stinking burning refresher again) deigned to taste the biccies. He claimed they were like 'An outbreak of sunshine on a biscuit base', but mumbled a bit about whether he thought they were better than the sugar and almond original.
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I like the concept – But I’ve got to admit that they don’t look the most appetising of snacks – Presentation counts you know (I’m still on the hunt for an Espetada Rack).
ReplyDeleteI'll have you know that in their normal form my wine biscuits have been mistaken for shop bought! They are that uniform and well presented!
ReplyDeleteShe's right, they do look great in reality. Clearly it's her photography that needs improving. :p
ReplyDelete