Biscuits

The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits & Nana’s Biscuit Tin

/ sbaskitchen / 4 Comments

There’s a recipe book that graces the shelves of many in Australia, The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits, and like, mine, I’m sure they are well used.

The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits – Ever reliable recipes

When I was a child, my nana, Elvie McDonald, would bake up a storm, filling biscuit (cookie) tins with a variety of biscuits, to be gifted to each of her adult children’s families.  We all had favourites, for me it was her melting moments, others loved her gingernuts, others, Anzacs, and so on, and it was a sad day when the last of your favourites had vanished from the tin.  When the tin was empty, it would be returned to nana, and she would use it to store her baked goods in throughout the year, before beginning the cycle again.  While I don’t have one of her large biscuit tins, I do have a smaller tin,  and use it to, fittingly, store my biscuit cutters in.

Nana’s Biscuit Tin
Inside Nana’s Biscuit Tin
Nana’s Biscuit Tin

Continue reading →

Butternut Chocolate Cream Biscuits

Print
Butternut Chocolate Cream Biscuits

Based on a commercial brand of biscuits, using my mum's recipe for butternut snaps. These biscuits are cooked smaller than normal and then joined together with either milk or dark chocolate, the choice is yours.

Category: Afternoon Tea, Lunch Box, Snacks
Style: Australian
Keyword: Biscuits, Butternut Chocolate Cream Biscuits, Butternut Snaps, Christmas Cookies, Gluten Free Option, Kingston Biscuits, Kingston Cookies
Quantity: 60 biscuits
Author: sbaskitchen
Ingredients
  • 2 tbsp butter softened (see notes)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
  • 1 cup coconut
  • 1 1/2 cups self raising flour see notes for Gluten Free Option
  • 1 packet of chocolate melts
Instructions

  1. Place the butter and sugar into the mixing bowl, and using a wooden spoon, cream the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the egg and beat to combine, then add the golden syrup and vanilla essence.

  3. Finally add the coconut and flour and mix until well combined.
  4. Preheat oven to 160˚C (fan).
  5. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

  6. Using a small coffee spoon, take spoonfuls of dough and place on the lined baking tray, ensuring that you allow space between each for spreading.

  7. Bake for 17 minutes, or until golden.
  8. Remove from the oven and turn every second biscuit upside down, revealing the flat base of the biscuit.
  9. Place a chocolate melt onto the flat base of each turned biscuit and top with one that has not been turned.

  10. Place on a cooling rack and allow the heat from the biscuits to melt the chocolate and then set. (I like to check the biscuits after a couple of minutes, to make sure that none of the top biscuits have moved as the chocolate melts.)

  11. When cold store in an airtight jar.
Notes
  • 1 metric tbsp = 4 tsp = 20 ml
  • The temperature shown is for a fan forced oven, if using a non-fan forced oven you will need to increase the temperature by 10-15˚C
  • This recipe translates easily for those on a gluten free diet.
    For gluten free biscuits, replace the self raising flour with 1 1/2 cups gluten free flour blend and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • I use both dark chocolate and milk chocolate melts, generally doing half with dark and half with milk. I believe that white chocolate would make the biscuits overly sweet, but in your kitchen you might like to try white chocolate..

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

If you have a moment, I would love to hear your thoughts on what you see on
this page – just pop a note in the comments box below.
With many thanks and kindness,
Julie.

 

 

 

Honey Lemon Biscuits

When looking for a suitable recipe for my grand boys to use to make and bake cookies/biscuits to decorate , there was only one book to turn to…

The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits – Ever reliable recipes

The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits from The Australian Women’s Weekly.  To me, this is the best biscuit/cookie recipe book ever.  It’s not a new recipe book, in fact, I believe that it dates back to the 1980’s, but the variety of recipes is fabulous and the recipes are reliable.

Now I needed a dough that the children could use cookie cutters on, but I didn’t want just any dough.  I know that Samuel loves lemon and Cooper loves honey, and there it was…  Honey Lemon Biscuits.

Print
Honey Lemon Biscuits/Cookies
Category: Baking, Biscuits, Snacks
Style: Australian
Keyword: Cinnamon, Honey, Honey biscuits, Lemon, Lemon biscuits
Quantity: 35 biscuits
Author: The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits, The Australian Women's Weekly, p61.
Ingredients
  • 60 g 2oz butter
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
  • 1/4 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 cup unprocessed bran
  • FOR THE ICING
  • 2/3 cup icing sugar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp honey
Instructions

  1. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

  2. Preheat oven to 180˚C

  3. Cream butter and honey together.

  4. Sift in the flours, cinnamon and ginger, returning the husks from the wholemeal flour that have remained in the sifter, to the bowl.

  5. Add the bran and mix all ingredients well.
  6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead lightly until smooth.
  7. Wrap the dough in plastic food wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  8. Roll the dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap to 5mm (1/4 inch) thick.

  9. Cut with floured cookie cutter. (They used a fluted cookie cutter in the recipe) and place the cookies onto the prepared baking trays.

  10. Bake in moderate oven 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

  11. Remove from trays to wire rack.
  12. Dip the tops in icing while still warm.
Notes

You can mix the dough in a stand mixer with a flat beater.

You may need to make a thicker icing if wanting to add other decorations.

 

If you have a moment, I would love to hear your thoughts on what you see on
this page – just pop a note in the comments box below.
With many thanks and kindness,
Julie.

Yo Yo’s

 

Print
Nana Grace's Yo Yo's
My mum was an amazing cook, anything she turned her hand to was always delicious. Her Yo Yo biscuits/cookies never lasted long, so it was always such a treat when she baked them.
Category: Afternoon Tea, Baking, Lunch Box, Snacks
Style: Australian
Keyword: Biscuits, Christmas Cookies, Mum's Recipes, Nana Grace's Yo Yos, Yo-Yo, Yo-Yos
Author: sbaskitchen
Ingredients
  • 225 g / 8 oz butter
  • 115 g / 4 oz custard powder
  • 115 g / 4 oz icing sugar
  • 2 - 2 1/2 cups plain flour
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 160˚C/320˚F (fan-forced).
  2. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

  3. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  4. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix to a dough like consistency.
  5. Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into small balls and place on the prepared baking trays, leaving room for a little spreading.

  6. Use a fork to gently flatten (dip the fork into some plain flour every now and then to prevent it from sticking to the biscuit).

  7. Bake in preheated oven 15-20 minutes.
  8. Join together with a little icing (see note below).
Notes

While many choose to join their Yo Yo's together with a butter icing, we always made a simple icing using icing sugar, a small piece of butter, probably about half to one teaspoonful, a little vanilla, and just enough boiling water to mix to a nice consistency.

 

The instructions for the recipe in mum’s recipe book were limited…

Cream butter and sugar add sifted dry ingredients roll into small balls & place on slide press with fork.  Join with butter icing and roll in castor sugar.

 I have expanded the instructions a little and you will see from my note in the recipe that we didn’t use a soft butter icing, and we don’t roll the biscuits in caster sugar, as guided by my mum’s original recipe – she never followed these instructions either!

 

Brigita’s Sweet Pumpernikel

There is one thing about Christmas for me, and it is the memories of family and friends, those who are with us, and those no longer here…

As I was deciding on the recipes for the biscuits (cookies) to be baked for this year’s Christmas gifts, I recalled a beautiful, kind lady whom I felt privileged to call a friend, Brigita, a lecturer and colleague whom I worked with at Deakin University almost 30 years ago! (She was an academic, I was in admin). The department we worked for was a very social group, and we celebrated Christmas twice a year! Brigita, originally from Latvia, always prepared the mulled wine, but what I remember more is her very special sweet treat, a biscuit that she called pumpernikel. It was not the dark, dense, savoury pumpernikel that I was familiar with, rather a crisp, light, sweet, fruity biscuit that she had baked and given to me as a gift for Christmas. I was so privileged to have received this recipe from her, and it is through this recipe that Brigita will be forever remembered by our family.

Print
Brigita's Sweet Pumpernikel

The fruit and peel make this little treat delicious!

Category: Baking, Biscuits, Cookies
Style: Latvian
Keyword: Biscuits, Christmas Biscuits, Christmas Cookies, Cookies, Fruit Biscuit, Fruit Cookies, Gluten Free Option, Pumpernikel, Sweet Pumpernikel
Quantity: 120 biscuits
Author: sbaskitchen
Ingredients
  • 200 g butter
  • 400 g sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 3 drops of almond extract
  • 500 g plain flour
  • 300 g ground almonds
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 125 g candied citrus peel
  • 100 g glace fruit diced
  • 75 g currants
  • 60 g glace ginger diced
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 175˚C (fan).
  2. Line 3 baking trays with baking paper.
  3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  5. Add fruit and dry ingredients and mix well to combine.
  6. Roll into 2 cm thick sticks and lay across the lined baking tray, leaving space for spreading.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden.
  8. Cut on the diagonal while still warm.
  9. Lay out on baking trays and dry in a tepid oven.
Notes
  • I heat the oven to 150˚C (fan), turn it off and then put the biscuits in overnight.
  • For gluten free sweet pumpernikel replace flour with Gluten Free Flour Blend, add an additional tsp of GF baking powder and 1 tsp xanthan gum.

 

If you have a moment, I would love to hear your thoughts on what you see on
this page – just pop a note in the comments box below.
With many thanks and kindness,
Julie.

Caricature