Hello there my lovelies so as we are at that time of the year where leaves are changing colour, autumn is here and we are all cosying up with hot drinks, the one thing that excites me as much as Halloween and Christmas is knowing the bake off is back on our screens. Now I know we have reached the end of the series but all this bake off watching has inspired me to get up and do more baking myself. Baking is something I have always loved to do after everything make-up and fashion but I always tend to stick to the same ol classic bakes whether it's lemon drizzle cake, flapjack, butterfly cakes or jammy biscuits. Therefore I have set myself the challenge of baking something completely different at least once a week and I am going to share this with all of you and this week I have chosen...
Brandy Snaps
Okay so they don't sound that exciting or brilliant but according to Mary Berry herself they are classed as a technical challenge (and they aren't as easy as you'd think) . I've never really had brandy snaps before so they were something new for me to try too and I must say I had a lot of fun making them and to my surprise they don't actually have brandy in.. weird huh?..
So what does go into them? Read on to find out
Ingredients
50g butter
50g plain flour
50g demera sugar
50g golden syrup
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2tsp ground ginger
Method
You want to begin by putting your oven on to 180 degrees celsius and lining a baking tray with non stick grease-proof paper (I just used a non stick tray and that worked fine). Next, mix together your butter, sugar and golden syrup in a small pan until the sugar has dissolved using a low heat (it takes about 15 minutes). You want to make sure the mixture doesn't crystallize so keep dragging your spoon across the bottom of the pan till it doesn't sound gritty.
Then you want to leave the mixture to cool slightly for a few minutes before sieving in the dry ingredients (flour and ginger). Then add the lemon juice and give it a really good ol mix.
Then all you want to do is drop four teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto each of the prepared baking trays to make neat circles, about 10cm/4in apart. (when it comes to a later batch don't worry if the mixture has turned into a dough it still works fabby!)
You want to bake them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until they are well spread out, look lacey and are a dark golden colour. This is the difficult part because when they come out you have to work super fast shape the brandy snaps and trust me you will be going oo eee ouch! (its easier if you bake one tray at a time). Leave for a minute or so to firm up slightly, then lift from the baking parchment using a fish slice. The mixture needs to be just firm enough to remove, but pliable enough to shape. Mary says to check by releasing around and under the edges with a small palette knife.
Quickly roll a circle of the warm mixture around the handle of the wooden spoon, having the join underneath. Press the join lightly together to seal, then slide the brandy snap off the spoon and leave it to firm up on the wire rack, again with the join underneath. If any of the circles on the sheet harden too much to work with, put them back in the oven for a few seconds to soften again. Repeat until all the mixture has been used.
I will be honest the shaping part wasn't easy especially because my hands did not like having to work with something that hot but overall I was pretty pleased with how they came out. It says that the mixture makes 12-15 but I got 8 out of it - I do think mine were a lil too big though haha..I did burn the first lot for no other fault of my mine own ooops! but the other 4 came out amazing and I was so happy with them and they really do snap! I definitely will make these again no doubt about it because they actually tasted really good if not a bit like putting 20 stone on in 30 seconds, I hope you enjoyed this post and if you want to see more things like this be sure to let me know! eek and also just ton let you know I am back to doing my YouTube now so make sure to check that out if you'd like. I love you my beautiful human beings and I will speak to you in my next post, bye!
Then you want to leave the mixture to cool slightly for a few minutes before sieving in the dry ingredients (flour and ginger). Then add the lemon juice and give it a really good ol mix.
Then all you want to do is drop four teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto each of the prepared baking trays to make neat circles, about 10cm/4in apart. (when it comes to a later batch don't worry if the mixture has turned into a dough it still works fabby!)
You want to bake them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until they are well spread out, look lacey and are a dark golden colour. This is the difficult part because when they come out you have to work super fast shape the brandy snaps and trust me you will be going oo eee ouch! (its easier if you bake one tray at a time). Leave for a minute or so to firm up slightly, then lift from the baking parchment using a fish slice. The mixture needs to be just firm enough to remove, but pliable enough to shape. Mary says to check by releasing around and under the edges with a small palette knife.
Quickly roll a circle of the warm mixture around the handle of the wooden spoon, having the join underneath. Press the join lightly together to seal, then slide the brandy snap off the spoon and leave it to firm up on the wire rack, again with the join underneath. If any of the circles on the sheet harden too much to work with, put them back in the oven for a few seconds to soften again. Repeat until all the mixture has been used.
I will be honest the shaping part wasn't easy especially because my hands did not like having to work with something that hot but overall I was pretty pleased with how they came out. It says that the mixture makes 12-15 but I got 8 out of it - I do think mine were a lil too big though haha..I did burn the first lot for no other fault of my mine own ooops! but the other 4 came out amazing and I was so happy with them and they really do snap! I definitely will make these again no doubt about it because they actually tasted really good if not a bit like putting 20 stone on in 30 seconds, I hope you enjoyed this post and if you want to see more things like this be sure to let me know! eek and also just ton let you know I am back to doing my YouTube now so make sure to check that out if you'd like. I love you my beautiful human beings and I will speak to you in my next post, bye!
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