The Bake Off Bake Along 2016 – Biscuit Week

Week two brought biscuit week – lots and lots of biscuits!

I was surprised that Louise ended up leaving *oops spoiler* because poor old Val had a shocker, but I’m pleased she’s in for another week. Bless her! Mum was squealing at the tension of the falling gingerbread, such biscuit stress! Can we just say how cool Selasi was again, so collected.  I also love Benjamina, what a babe!

My choices for the bake along were limited this week compared to my epic cake last week, but not because of the bakes themselves, more due to time limitations! We were busy at the weekend camping amongst the trees and wildlife in the middle of Dartmoor with Anna and Nathan (as seen on her blog here…) Perhaps luckily, perhaps not, we ended up being washed out entirely and slept in Plymouth due to the pouring rain on Saturday night which meant I had a little bit more time than expected on Sunday. Still, with lots to do I still ended up doing my baking late afternoon.

It turns out waiting for butter to seriously soften takes a lot longer than expected.

Especially when the day is less than warm and in fact still chucking it down.

I used Mary’s recipe for Viennese Whirls, thinking they’d take less time than iced biscuits or gingerbread monuments  (though I’d have loved to do both and would have relished the challenge!). Still, Adam was actually keen for a Viennese Whirl which is saying something from the boy who doesn’t like sweet treats or biscuits particularly.

Having never made them before, I was pleasantly surprised by how simply they were, other than the obvious error of making them identical. I would definitely draw them all out properly next time and maybe do more batches to give them more space on the trays.

You live and learn.

The jam I felt was a little loose too, but I’m not too sure why. However, I absolutely loved the taste of them, they are literally melt in the mouth but not too soft, perfectly vanillary, with the right balance of sweetness. Great biscuit snacking choice.

I’d make them again, definitely.

They look pretty snazzy for a simple biscuit. Though my goodness me, so much butter. No wonder they taste a dream!