A few months ago, gripped by baking fever, I purchased Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I quickly decided to embark upon a mission to bake everything in the book, and turn myself from an occasional baker into a bit of an expert. My Grandad Ern was a Master Baker by trade; the man responsible for introducing Danish Pastries to England in fact, and I wish it had occurred to me to spend more time learning from him, rather than simply enjoying the fruits of his effortless labours. This project is almost a way of making amends for that; I'd like to follow in his footsteps (if not in my career, at least as a hobby) and continue the proud heritage of baking in my family.
I credit my friend Rachel with the idea to write a blog about my baking exploits, hoping that there will be more successes than failures as I attempt all 213 of the Queen of Baking's recipes.
So as not to bore the husband with a monotonous diet of sponges, followed by weeks of biscuits, I've decided to tackle the recipes by selecting the first bake from each chapter, followed by the second recipe and so on. I'm not going to pick and choose; I'm determined to face my baking demons and learn how to do everything baking-related, even if the consequences are disastrous!
Everything will be photographed, with comment about how I found baking it, and a husband rating (to be taken with a pinch of salt as he has a very selective cake-tooth).


Thursday, 12 April 2012

13. Very Best Shortbread

This is the last batch of biscuits I intend to bake for a while; at least until I reach the end of my first 'section'. I now have a few more cakes, some pies and bread, meringues and a cheesecake to go. I think I could quite happily stick to biscuits, which have seemed the most practical bake so far, being good for storing and sharing. Anyway, shortbread is always a winner, so I was looking forward to having a go at this. I've made it before, but only to form the base of Millionaire's Shortbread, so this would test my mettle in the good quality biscuit arena.
My first challenge was locating the semolina in the supermarket. What a mission! I was eventually led to the packet desserts aisle - does anybody have semolina as a dessert anymore? I suppose they must do, for there it was. I was almost tempted to stock up in case it goes out of fashion forever.
Making the shortbread was a bit fiddly, and the dough took a fair bit of manipulating to get it to hold together without cracking. I wasn't very happy with how it went into the tin; it didn't have a lot of 'give' and was hard to work with.
I hoped the rough and ready appearance would diminish upon baking and cutting into fingers, and it did. After chilling, the almonds and sugar were scattered over it, and it was baked for about 35 minutes. It came out quite soft - perhaps it needed a bit longer, but I didn't want to brown it. I was a bit disappointed by the amount of almonds that fell off when I cut it; I'd expected the sugar to sort of glue them in place. Next time, I'd miss both ingredients out. The sugar made it too sweet, and I didn't really like the texture of the crystals against the soft, buttery biscuit. The almonds added another flavour, but actually I quite like shortbread just as it is.
Baker's verdict: pretty easy to make and very tasty. No need for the stuff on top.
Husband rating: 7.5. Tasty, but didn't need the sugar on top.
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