Wow! After an unprecedented delay since my last post, I'm back! Sorry about that. It's good to know that people care, judging by the emails I've gotten, wondering where I am, and where the Christmas stuff is. I could pretend that I've been kept far too busy to blog by a series of glamourous and fun Christmas parties, but sadly, I was temporarily laid out earlier this week by some kind of very un-fun, unseasonal, and completely without Christmas (or any other) cheer, tummy bug. YUCK! Anyhow, it's now the 4th day of Christmas so I have some catching up to do. I've done almost all my Christmas shopping, except for one friend who has perfect taste, gives magnificent gifts, and I find incredibly difficult to buy for. This Saturday, mum is dragging me out to the DFO because she's heard they have good bargains out there and wouldn't mind a look. I'm really just the driver on this expedition, having no interest in the DFO experience at all. In fact, I personally hate any kind of shopping (except for food) with a passion. I really do. (Men have offered to marry me on this basis). I'm going to have to take some kind of sedative to get through it. I can imagine it now - the hyped up, Saturday morning, pre-Christmas crowd, on a mission with high spirits and full credit cards, striding through with purpose and in the hopes that they truly have discovered some kind of super-saving-shopping-mecca that will bring peace and goodwill to all men. Or at least get them some serious bargains. (Deep intake of breath) On the cooking front, I have plenty of that to do too, if I make it out of the shops alive.
The first tasty treat on this year's Christmas list is a recipe I found in a Woman's Weekly recipe book. Actually it's a really nice little book, full of gorgeous pictures and Christmas recipes. It's simply called 'Christmas'. I've only used this one recipe so far but I hope to do more and we'll see how we go.
Sugar and spice snaps look so invitingly delicious on the page. I recall be able to buy honey snap biscuits as a kid. I don't think they make them any more, but these cookies reminded me of those. Full of Christmas spices like ginger and clove and lots of dark sugar, they're just right to kick the season off.
One thing - I sprinkled the first lot with regular raw sugar, suspecting that it would in fact get lost in the biscuit when cooked. It did. I then turned to the trusty coarse, coffee crystal sugar. It's basically just larger grounds of raw sugar and worked a lot better.
Sugar & Spice Snaps
Women's Weekly, Christmas, p 11
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed dark muscovado sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp ground clove
150g butter, chopped coarsely
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup (55g) raw sugar
Process flour, muscovado sugar, spices and butter until crumbly. Add egg yolk; process until combined. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Cover; refrigerate 30 minutes.
Divide dough in half, roll each half between sheets of baking paper to 3mm thickness. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180ºC/ 160ºC fan forced. Line three oven trays with baking paper.
Cut thirty 7cm rounds from the dough. Place rounds on trays; sprinkle with raw/coffee sugar.
Bake snaps about 10 minutes; cool on trays.
2 comments:
You used to be able to buy Ginger snaps at Ikea. Tim might remember --quite nice.
Shopping!! Hate it, which is why most of my shopping is done over the net.
I love this photo - just superb!
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