Above you can see my first attempt at piping. Piping has always been the bane of my baking abilities, with each failed attempt getting worse and worse along with the mockery from my family (who are always completely honest) but I didn’t give up! I decided to try out some Tala Piping Squeeze bottles from Sainsbury’s, you can get 3 in a pack with different nozzles and they’re inexpensive. Although they were testing my patience at first (they seem to follow all the laws for gravity and got stuck at the bottom of the bottle) I finally got the hang of it and I don’t think they look too shabby, I’m aware they are no piping masterpiece but you’ve got to start somewhere, right? I’m going to the ‘Cake and Bake Show’ in Manchester next weekend courtesy of my wonderful boyfriend and I’ve book to attend a class on ‘Perfect Piping’ which I hope will improve my piping skills even more. If you were like me and the thought of piping brought you out in cold sweats, just keep trying and if all else fails you can tell everyone a younger sibling / cousin / nephew / niece / son / daughter did them, I won’t tell if you don’t!
The biscuits are ‘Iced Lemon Biscuits’ from The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake.
150g Unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar
Zest and Juice of 1 lemon
75g Cream cheese (I used full fat)
300g Plain Flour
Good Pinch of Salt and Baking Powder
100g Icing sugar
- Beat the butter until creamy, and then add the sugar and lemon zest then beat thoroughly until light and creamy (I used an electric whisk)
- Beat in 2 teaspoons of lemon Juice and leave the rest for the icing later, then beat in the cream cheese
- Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the bowl and mix with a spoon or use your hands, I began with the spoon and then used my hands to combine the dough together
- Shape the dough into a thick disk, cover in clingfilm (I had to use a plastic bag which worked fine, we never seem to have any clingfilm!) for about 30 minutes
- Preheat the oven to 180 c / 350 f / gas 4
- Unwrap the dough and roll out on a lightly floured worktop using a rolling pin until its just slightly thicker than a £1 coin
- Dip a pastry cutter in some flour and then cut your shapes out from the dough (I used some star shaped ones and managed to get about 30 biscuits from the dough)
- Bake for 12 – 15 mins or until the edges are just turning golden brown
- Leave the biscuits on the tray for about 3-5 minutes to firm up and then transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely
- To make the icing mix 100g on icing sugar with 2/3 teaspoons of the remaining lemon juice (I actually found there was a lot of icing left over so you might want to half the quantities)
- Decorate your biscuits, if you aren’t quite up to piping yet then spreading on the biscuits would be just as good
- Enjoy!
The biscuits will keep for up to 5 days (but they didn’t last 5 hours in our house!)
Hannah xx
Hannahbakesit 