Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Baking: Burnt Butter Biscuits



Hold the phones, stop the presses, do whatever you need to do to halt everything for just a minute.

I've made a few batches of rock cakes now, and have been on the lookout for something different, but just as simple. Enter, stage right, the Burnt Butter Biscuit.

Now, the smart-asses amongst you might think "huh, that's just biscuits you leave in the oven for too long". Yeah, very funny. I tell you, I don't think I quite nailed these little buggers this batch, but they're so light, and crisp, and yummy, I'm not that upset!

Burnt Butter Biscuits

Melt 125g of butter over a low heat and cook it until it's a light brown colour. Leave it to cool slightly, and start preheating your oven to 180C. Once the butter has cooled a little add 1/2 cup of caster sugar to the butter and beat the mixture really well. Mix in one lightly beaten egg and a teaspoon of vanilla. Fold in 1 cup of self-raising flour, 1/2 cup of plain flour, and a pinch of salt. The mixture will come together into a stick glossy dough. Roll walnut-sized balls of dough into balls and set them out on a greased tray, leaving enough room for spreading. Bake for about 10 minutes or until they're lightly golden brown. The recipe suggests placing a blanched almond on top of each biscuit before throwing them in the oven.

This made 24 for me (which, amazingly, is what the original recipe said. I almost never get it right!)

Now, I'm pretty sure I didn't cook the butter long enough: I'm great at burning things accidentally, but apparently when I have to do it deliberately I can't. Go figure! Either way, these are NICE little biscuits. They'd be nice with a drizzle of melted chocolate on top, or maybe even a little orange zest added to the mix... wonder how that'd work... I guess, really, they're a great basic little biscuit, so easy, and taste fantastic.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm - I'm thinking these might do well with some sort of nut - such as pecan, macadamia or brazil.

They make a kickarse cuppatea biscuit ;-)

melbourne dreaming said...

Hey, they sound really good! Might have to try those babies. I reckon a nice lemony drizzle icing would work well..

Alison Schwabe said...

I've had this recipe for 40 years, they ARE delish. I hadn't made them for ages, but thought of making them for my book club freinds here (Montevideo) next week - and nearly all my recipe books are in Aus - so I was really glad to have found it on the first google. You need to more than just melt the butter - cook it until it has turned mid-brown - stand by, it doesn't take long, you don't want a kitchen fire! Almonds are great, pecans would be good - a glace cherry is lovely too. I wouldn't ice them - the feature is the nutty taste. Thanks - A