Another Edmonds Cookery Book Challenge completed! I sat down to find the recipe for Afghans, found that I did not have one of the main ingredients on hand, and switched my plan to making Belgium Biscuits instead. I do want to try the Afghans, but I will need to make a run to the grocery store to pick up some corn flakes first. Until then......here's how the Belgium Biscuits turned out.They were a rolled mild spice cookie sandwiched together with a bit of raspberry jam and topped with a bit of plain icing....the kind that will firm up and get glassy and hard....yum! The recipe called for mixed spice or pudding spice which I did not have on hand....but I looked up a recipe for that and made some of my own. I found the dough a little too crumbly going by the recipe and ended up adding about 2 tsp of milk to get the dough to hold together well. After that, it handled quite easily. I didn't have any raspberry essence....I'm going to have to look for some now because I do really like the flavour....so instead, I added a generous spoon of Heather and Andrew's raspberry jam (made with love with my neighbours own raspberries) to the frosting. So far, I am happy with this recipe and I am curious to see what sitting over night does to their texture...that is assuming there will be any left to make it through the night......Well, I know what I'll be having with tea tonight:)
Update: After typing out the recipe I notice that when I made the recipe I glanced up to the recipe above and added the amount and type of sugar called for in the 'basic biscuit' recipe. Oops, this meant I added 3/4 cup of white sugar to the recipe rather than the 1/4 cup brown sugar called for. I will have to try them again now to see what difference it will make. I would expect the brown sugar to make a difference in texture. But.....I will say that after a night in the cookie tin all filled and frosted, I thought these cookies were just perfect. They softened up just enough to not be crumbley when eating them. They were a bit of work, but I will definitely make them again.
Belgium Biscuits
125 g (about 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp) butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cocoa
Icing
3/4 to 1 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp raspberry or vanilla essence
a few drops of red food colouring
water
Filling
1/2 cup raspberry jam, approximately
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice, and cocoa together. Mix into creamed mixture to make a firm dough. On a lightly floured board roll the dough out to 3 mm thick. Cut out rounds using a 6.5cm cuter. Bake at 180 C (350F) for 15 minutes or until golden. When cold, ice half of the biscuits. Spread the remaining biscuits with raspberry jam and place iced biscuits on top.
Icing
Mix icing sugar with flavouring and colouring. Add sufficient water to make a pink icing of spreading consistency.
If you do not have Mixed Spice, but would like to make your own...try this recipe...
Mixed Spice
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp nutmeg
1 tbsp allspice
2 tsp mace
1 tsp ground cloves
Mix all together and store in a sealed container.
Update: After typing out the recipe I notice that when I made the recipe I glanced up to the recipe above and added the amount and type of sugar called for in the 'basic biscuit' recipe. Oops, this meant I added 3/4 cup of white sugar to the recipe rather than the 1/4 cup brown sugar called for. I will have to try them again now to see what difference it will make. I would expect the brown sugar to make a difference in texture. But.....I will say that after a night in the cookie tin all filled and frosted, I thought these cookies were just perfect. They softened up just enough to not be crumbley when eating them. They were a bit of work, but I will definitely make them again.
Belgium Biscuits
125 g (about 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp) butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cocoa
Icing
3/4 to 1 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp raspberry or vanilla essence
a few drops of red food colouring
water
Filling
1/2 cup raspberry jam, approximately
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice, and cocoa together. Mix into creamed mixture to make a firm dough. On a lightly floured board roll the dough out to 3 mm thick. Cut out rounds using a 6.5cm cuter. Bake at 180 C (350F) for 15 minutes or until golden. When cold, ice half of the biscuits. Spread the remaining biscuits with raspberry jam and place iced biscuits on top.
Icing
Mix icing sugar with flavouring and colouring. Add sufficient water to make a pink icing of spreading consistency.
If you do not have Mixed Spice, but would like to make your own...try this recipe...
Mixed Spice
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp nutmeg
1 tbsp allspice
2 tsp mace
1 tsp ground cloves
Mix all together and store in a sealed container.
4 comments:
These look pretty!! I think I may need to try them. I've now used up all my Canadian-backyard-berry jam, but I made some strawberry jam about a month ago. We're heading into kiwi season shortly, so I may make some kiwi jam (last year it was chutney). BTW, dough consistency may be the difference in flour - I find I need to finick with my N American recipes in terms of flour content here (especially for cookies).
I'll have to try it again with the right sugar to see if I still have an issue.....but making them again won't be a problem because they are yummy and pretty presentable too:)
complete the look by sprinkling red jelly crystals in the middle of th icing before it sets. The NZ way.
I will try that thanks! I think I've seen it somewhere and it was pretty:)
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