Accept cookies
BRONTE AURELL’S DANISH BUTTER COOKIES (MAKES 30) CLAIRE SPREADBURY DISCOVERS HOW EASY IS IT TO BAKE SCANDI CHRISTMAS BISCUITS WITH HER DAUGHTERS
INGREDIENTS:
250g, plus 2tbs butter
375g plain/ all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting 150g icing/ confectioners’ sugar 1 egg yolk 3-4tbs double cream Egg white, lightly beaten, for brushing Sanding, pearl or demerara/ turbinado sugar, to decorate
METHOD:
1. Mix the butter and flour together to form crumbs. Add the sugar and mix, then work in the egg yolk and, finally, the cream. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour. Don’t overwork the dough too much.
2. Leave it to rest in a plastic bag in the fridge for at least an hour, until cold.
3. Preheat the oven to 200˚C (400˚F) Gas 6. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Roll pieces of around 20-25g into thin ‘sausage’ shapes about 20cm long, then form each into a pretzel shape and place on the lined baking sheets (the biscuits will spread out during cooking, so make sure there is space between them).
5. Repeat until all the dough is used.
6. Brush with egg white and top with the sugar, then bake for eight to 10 minutes, until just baked through (don’t allow them to brown too much).
7. Leave to cool before storing in an airtight container.
BAKING with children always seems like an idyllic thing to do – especially at Christmas time. You can picture mum or dad guiding the small folk on what to do, while spoons are sneakily licked and festive tunes play in the background.
The reality, however, as anyone who’s cooked with kids will know, never quite goes to plan.
Weighing everything out first and having it all ready to go is a good idea, but there’s never enough time to be so organised and it creates a mountain of washing up.
Tiny fingers are drawn to hot pans and ovens like moths to a flame, and inevitably, someone ends up losing their rag.
But, as new cookbook ScandiKitchen Christmas hits the shelves, I’m drawn in once again, and set about making its Swedish ginger biscuits with my daughters, aged six and nine.
INGREDIENTS
(Makes 50-70 biscuits) 550g plain/all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting; 1tsp bicarbonate of/baking soda; 1 ½tsp ground ginger; 1tsp ground cloves; 1tbs ground cinnamon; 1tsp ground cardamom; ½tsp ground allspice; Pinch of salt; 100g granulated sugar; 100g soft dark brown sugar; 150g butter, at room temperature; 200g golden syrup; 150ml double cream
MAKING THE DOUGH
THE recipe says to make the biscuit dough in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment. This is all pretty straight forward.
I took charge of loading up the scales while Poppy, my six-yearold, yelped ‘Stop!’ when the measurements read the right amount. She also enjoyed spooning in all the spices. So far, so easy.
When the dough comes together, it is pretty heavy, so an adult will need to retrieve it from the bowl. But then it’s over to the small folk to roll it into a giant sausage and wrap it in cling film.
Then it needs to rest in the fridge overnight. Prepare them for this. If your kids are anything like mine, the main joy of baking lies in the eating, so when they discover none of that is going to happen until the next day, there might be some tantrums.
You can, however, bribe them back to happiness by giving them a hunk of the cookie dough to eat raw. Works every time.
BAKING THE BISCUITS
THE next day, preheat your oven at 200˚C and line baking sheets with parchment – a boring job, but something the kids can help with. Then set up a nice floury worktop, break off a chunk of the dough (there’s loads), let the little ones roll it out to around 2mm thick and cut out an array of Christmas-shaped biscuits.
Rosie, my nine-year-old, went first. Sometimes the rolling out got a teeny bit thin, but generally they found this pretty easy, and enjoyed taking it in turns to break off another hunk and make some more biscuits.
You can get a bit of a conveyorbelt system going as well.
This recipe makes so many biscuits that it’s good to get each baking tray in the oven as soon as it fills up. You can also do that easily because they cook to perfection in just six minutes.
Once they’re out of the oven, leave for a few minutes before popping on to a cooling rack. Pleasingly, they also cool down quickly, so the kids can crack on with decorating.
We did try to make some into decorations, but my puny skewer holes disappeared in the oven. If you do want to hang them on the Christmas tree, make a sizeable circle to thread your string through.
ICING YOUR BAKES
THE best icing for these biscuits is a mixture of icing sugar, stirred into beaten egg white and a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice, because it goes hard when it dries and pipes beautifully.
However, if like me, you’re in need of a break having got this far and just want to put your feet up and leave them to it, you can let little ones loose with colourful tubes of icing or even chocolate – sold in all good supermarkets.
THE VERDICT
THESE biscuits are actually wonderfully easy to make with kids, and if you can make them into decorations, even better.
My girls loved it, and having decorated a grand total of eight so far, there’s another 53 in an air-tight container waiting for them – perfect for the school
holidays.
■ ScandiKitchen Christmas (left) by Bronte Aurell, photography by Peter Cassidy, is published by Ryland Peters & Small, priced £16.99.
through. Main course? Yes. Cheese? Definitely.
I’m now waving a Christmas glass of
(RRP £17, Sainsbury) hails from Argentina. The country’s signature wine grape, malbec, takes the lead in a five-grape blend including merlot, cabernet sauvignon and syrah.
Flavours of red fruits, plums and spices dance a tango in your mouth, then linger temptingly. Sip and watch the Christmas episode of Strictly for the full effect.
A final choice is
any-day kind of wine, full of black cherries. More than anything, you’ll love the label.