I skipped ahead a few pages to bake these as I wanted to make some biscuits for afternoon tea with friends, accompanied by one of my now classic Victoria Sandwiches. I'm finding biscuits very pleasurable and very easy to make. They can be knocked together quickly, and now I have faith that mixtures will eventually hold together, I feel much more confident about making them. These actually formed quite a wet mixture as opposed to the 'short' biscuits I've made up to this point, probably because of the inclusion of an egg. They were intended to be 'slightly chewy' once baked as well.
They only needed 8-10 minutes in the oven; another reason why biscuit-making is so satisfying, and I took them out just as they were starting to go a bit golden around the edges. I did actually bake them in shifts: I needed to allow room for spreading, and only have 2 baking sheets! Because the recipe said they needed to go on the top shelf, I couldn't really put two trays in at the same time. We don't have a massive oven! Anyway, they smelt lovely and when nibbled warm they definitely had a bit of a chew about them. However, I might have cooked them for a bit longer than needed, as they certainly couldn't be described as 'chewy' once they'd cooled.
Baker's verdict: perfectly good biscuits, but I like gooey cookies, and I'm not convinced it was my execution that made these more biscuit than cookie.
Husband rating: 7/10 - very tasty, very moreish, but the texture was a bit like soft biscuits rather than chewy.
