Day: 17 November 2022

Ingredients:

• 100g butter
• 125g icing sugar
• 100g flour
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 vanilla paste

Process:

• Pre-heat oven at 180C
• Cream butter and icing sugar with your hand.
• Add the egg whites in three times. Mix with your hand.
• Add the flour bit a bit and keep mixing.
• Add the vanilla, mix a bit.
• Prepare a piping bag with a small nozzle. As usual, twist the bag with your index finger in the nozzle so it keeps the form, fold the pipe to the middle and then add the cream.
• On the back of a tray, wash it with a bit of butter, add flour and then smack it with one hit so it get a soft non-sticky cover.
• Using a butter block, make two vertical lines using thumb and index finger.
• ^^ This is the same as the eclairs ^^
• Pipe the cream horizontally, hold the pipe with your left hand and squeeze with the right. Be sure the lines are uniform (parts with more cream than other, etc), the cream doesnt have bubbles.
• Then trim the edges with a sharp knife, the lines should be well inside the tray. This is important because once in the oven, they will expand and you dont want the biscuit bend down the tray edge.
• Bake for 10 minutes aprox, until the biscuit edges are golden brown.
• Remove from oven and let them cool down
• Optionally, you can dust half of the biscuit with icing sugar.

The biscuits were tasty but the form was really bad. My piping wasnt good I think as some parts had more cream and they expanded more. Need to try again!

Brandy Snap Ingredients:

• 55g butter
• 55g demanara sugar
• 55g golden syrup (put 10sec in microwave once ready to use it so it is liquid)
• 50g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp lemon (stops crystalizing the sugar)
• optional: Silpat matt (Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat)

Process:

• Pre-heat oven at 180C.
• In sauce pan, put butter, sugar and syrup. Heat gently at low heat, until everything is disolved. Don’t boil it!!! Stir with a spoon, until you dont feel the grains of sugar. If should look like “caramel”. It will take 10-15 minutes. Dont rush it.
• Let the sugar mix to cool down for 1-2 minutes, add the flour and ginger. Mix well but just a bit. You dont want to split the mix.
• Add the lemon, mix well but like above.
• In the baking try with non-sticking paper or similar, drop 4 small balls of “caramel”. Around 1/2 tsp. It looks small but then in the oven they will spread out a lot. They need to become flat, and “toasted”. A bit less than 10 minutes.
• When the circules have a nice brown color, remove the try from the oven.
• Wait 30 sec or so. Then with a circle cookie cutter, cut a circumference from each melted caramel. If it is too soft, wait for a bit, then remove the sides around the cutter with the handle of a fork or spoon. The “cookie” should be pliable.
• Use the handle of the whisk, with a bit of oil, and put the “cookie” to form a “canoli”. Try to connect the sides. Wait until the “cookie” is a bit hard and remove from the handle. Let it rest in a cooling rack
  • Very likely from the 4 caramel melts, one or two will be hard and you will not be able to cut it or put the cookie in the handle without breaking it. If you think they are going to break, put them back in the oven for 1 minute and will be come soft again. So start the process again, use cutter, help with fork to remove excess sides, then handle to form a “canoli”.
  • Once you have all “canoli” resting, make the filling below:

Cream Ingredients:

• 200ml double cream
• 1 tsp icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste

Cream process:

• Whisk the cream, sugar and vanilla until it starts to become solid. Don’t go to stiff peaks!!! This is not merengue. If you do, once you try to pipe it, the cream will spilt in something similar to butter and water.
• Use a cross end for the pipe. As usual, twist the bag with the index finger so it stays, the put the cream in the bag, twist the bag until all cream is together and then pipe one hand in the bottom and the other squeezing.
• Fill each canoli a bit from each side.
• Optional, dip each side in pistachio

I tried one after cooling down and I felt it was too sweet. But maybe because I ate a bit of the “cookie” leftover that are nearly purely sugar.

The next day, I tried another and felt much better. The cream is not sweet at all so it balance the “biscuit”.