Baking biscuits in #iso

When the baking mood hits you, a batch of biscuits is not only quick and easy to whip up, but extremely satisfying.

These old fashioned recipes can be made by hand, as my mother and grandmother did, or whipped up using an electric mixer or food processor.

For the baking novice, there are a few rules to follow.

Start with the ingredients at room temperature. If your butter is cold, use a grater to break up into small pieces. Otherwise, microwave in short bursts to soften.

To bring eggs to room temperature, take them out of the fridge 30 minutes before you plan to use them. Alternatively, you can warm them up very quickly by placing them in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes.

Sifting flour and other dry ingredients together helps to integrate and aerate the mixture. Sift onto a piece of baking paper to make it easier to add to the mixing bowl.

When using cup and spoon measures, check that they are Australian Standard Metric measures. An Australian metric tablespoon is 20ml and a cup is 250ml. Many kitchenware shops sell cup and spoon measures that have been designed overseas, where the measurements are different. This can lead to disaster when baking.

When measuring flour using a cup, first stir the flour in its container to aerate and lift it. Then scoop out the required amount, heaping it slightly in the cup. Level it off with the back of a knife. Don’t be tempted to tap or shake the cup, as the flour shouldn’t be packed in.

A more failsafe approach is to weigh all ingredients. Digital scales are a good investment as your measurements will be accurate.

The following recipes are for old fashioned, filled biscuits. So find an excuse to get baking. And may these recipes become some of your family favourites.

 melting moments with passionfruit icing

Delicate, melt-in-your-mouth treats with a fresh passionfruit filling.

1 cup (150g) self raising flour

1 cup (150g) cornflour

250g butter at room temperature

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

4 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

icing:

60g butter at room temperature

150g icing sugar

pulp 1/2 passionfruit

Preheat oven to 160C.

Sift flour and cornflour.

Cream butter, vanilla seeds and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Add flour and mix thoroughly.

Place small spoonfuls on a lined oven tray or use a piping bag with a 1cm star nozzle to pipe small swirls.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Cool on wire racks.

To make passionfruit icing, cream butter, icing sugar and passionfruit until light and fluffy.

Spread a small amount of icing onto the flat side of one biscuit, then top with a matching side and press down gently with a little twist to spread the icing evenly.

makes 20 filled biscuits.