Biscuits

How to make better biscuits.

• Measure ingredients accurately, particularly the liquid – too much makes a dough that’s soft and too sticky to handle.
• Use butter when making biscuits because the flavour of the fat is important; where bicarbonate of soda is listed in the recipe, remember it acts as a raising agent, so don’t leave it out.
• It is important that you make the indicated number of biscuits? should you finish with more or less than the recipe states, your biscuits may be too small or too large and the baking time will then be affected.
• If you have more than one baking sheet among your kitchen equipment then you have an advantage; it’s quicker and more accurate if you can spoon out, cut or mould all the mixture at the same time and to do this you will need 2–3 baking sheets.
• Because they are thin, biscuits bake quickly so watch baking times carefully – use an oven timer.
• All biscuits are fragile, so handle carefully; some varieties are very soft when newly baked and need 1–2 minutes to cool on the sheet. A palette knife or fish slice is handy for lifting them off the baking sheet; slide biscuits on to a wire rack and leave them until cool and crisp.
• Biscuits keep well in an airtight tin, but make sure they are quite cold first and don’t put any in a tin with cake or they will absorb the moisture and soften.
• Instead of using wooden spoons for rolling brandy snaps, I bought a broom handle from the ironmonger and had it cut into 6 inch (15cm) lengths. The snaps are easier to roll up and they are larger, allowing more room for the filling. But having a lot of round sticks doesn’t mean that more snaps can be baked at a lime-they become crisp so quickly that you must work quickly to roll them. Bake only the number specified in the recipe at a time.