Oat And Raisin Biscuits

One more recipe from my new book "277 types of biscuits/cakes" as it seems Lundulph has taken quite a fancy to having something sweet for afters these days.



But as always, he is very concerned about his diet and eating too much sugar. So I thought something with oat and raisins should at least give the feeling of healthiness.

This recipe makes 50 biscuits.

Ingredients

160 g unsalted butter at room temperature
150 g caster sugar
90 g porridge oats
100 g plain flour
100 g raisins
2 g bicarbonate of soda (about a quarter of a teaspoon)

Method

1. Mix all ingredients together into a dough, just using your fingers, so the butter doesn't melt.
   
   


2. Divide it up into 120 g pieces. It should be just right for this, no licking of fingers!
   
   


3. Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.


4. Line three baking sheets with baking paper and pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.


5. After the rest in the fridge, take out the dough pieces and roll each of them into a sausage.


6. Cut each sausage in 10 pieces, roll each into a ball and place on the baking sheets, with some space inbetween.
   
   


7. Press each piece down with the back of a fork, then bake in the middle of the oven until golden brown, about 15 - 30 minutes.
   
   


8. Remove and let cool on a rack, then store in an air-tight container.

It is also a good idea if the kitchen isn't too hot, or the dough will become sticky. If it does, just put it back in the fridge for a little longer.

The original recipe stated 12 minutes, but mine looked uncooked at that point in time, so I kept checking on them regularly after that and ended up baking the biscuits for 22 minutes.

I also recommend using a serrated knife when cutting the dough, it is easier to get through the raisins.

These cookies came out very nice indeed, they were crunchy with a little chewiness in the middle. They were also incredibly brittle, I had to take a lot of precautions in transporting them. They arrived relatively safe and sound.

Memo To Self On Poppy and Sesame Seed Bread

Today is a baking day, for the simple reason that Lundulph had the last three slices of bread for breakfast this morning.

Combine this with finding a jar of poppy seeds in the bottom drawer of the spice cupboard, I decided to make poppy and sesame seed bread this time.

As basis I decided to go for Richard Bertinet's recipe for olive dough, which I also used last night for a large pizza. As usual I make a double batch, which results in two large loaves. Sliced and frozen, they lasts us for a couple of weeks. We don't eat much bread, Lundulph and I.

Ingredients

1 kg super strong white flour
40 g semolina
22 g dried yeast (3 sachets)
100 g olive oil
340 g water
2 tbsp (black) poppy seeds
4 tbsp sesame seeds
20 g salt

Method

1. Put flour, semolina and dried yeast into the bowl of a bread mixer and run it "on dry" to blend the dry ingredients.


2. Add the olive oil and water and run the machine to mix into a dough.


3. After a few minutes add the salt slowly and continue to run until the dough doesn't stick and gluten has developed.


4. Take out of the machine and onto a floured worksurface. Fold up into a ball, dust the bottom of the bowl with flour and place the dough back in the bowl. Cover and let rise until double in size.


5. Prepare the loaf tins by brushing them with olive oil, bottom and sides. Pre-heat the oven to 240 degrees C.


6. Dust the worksurface with flour and take out the risen dough onto it. Weigh and divide in two equal parts. Mine usually are around 945 g each, but it depends on the loaf tins used of course.


7. Shape each part into a loaf and place in the tin. Cover and let proof for 30 - 45 minutes.


8. Slash and place in the oven to bake, 30 minutes at 240 degrees C, then turn down to 200 degrees C and bake for a further 30 minutes.


9. Keep an eye on the breads, if they start going dark too early, place a sheet of baking paper over them.


10. When done, turn out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing.

There, I have written it down, so that I know what amounts of seeds I have used - they seemed the right amount. Usually I don't write down my changes, especially if it is something I do regularly like bread and then next time I want to repeat it, if it was a successful change, I can never remember the amounts. Thus a memo to self.