I was looking forward to making this weeks recipe as I like baking new things and this would be my first ever attempt at brandy snaps. In the "How to Bake" book the brandy snaps are set as a technical challenge so hopefully I will pass this test with flying colours.
The biscuit mixture
Making the brandy snap mixture was so easy compared to last weeks Victoria sponge. First I had to simmer the sugar, butter and syrup till the sugar fully dissolved. Then I added the flour, ground ginger and lemon juice. Once the mixture was made I felt pretty confident that it would not be long until I had finished making all the biscuits. How wrong was I in assuming this!!!
I started the brandy snaps Wednesday evening about 7:40pm and by 9pm I was still going. It took to 9:30pm to finally finish my 12 brandy snap biscuits. Looking through the "How to Bake" book I noticed that there are no preparation or cooking times at the start of each recipe which means when you begin to make something you have no idea whether it will take 1 hour or 3 hours.
The reason that it took so long to make the biscuits is that you can only bake 4 biscuits in one go as you have to work fast to roll them into shape before they harden.
My first batch took 15 minutes to cook and came out of the oven a lovely dark golden colour.
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| The first batch just out of the oven |
I thought that it would be quite tricky rolling the biscuits into shape around the oiled wooden spoon but I found it very easy to do.
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| My rolled brandy snaps |
Whilst I had been shaping my first batch of brandy snaps the biscuit mixture had gone completely rock hard. When I came to do the second batch I had to chisel the mixture from the bottom of the bowl so that it ended up looking like breadcrumbs.
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| The breadcrumb mixture |
To get the mixture to become pliable I put the bowl on top of the warm oven. After about 10 minutes it had softened enough for me to be able to mould the breadcrumbs into round balls ready to bake.
My second and third batch of biscuits were not so successful as the first batch as they did not retain their rolled shape and collapsed on the wire rack. For the first batch I used about a tablespoon of mixture for each biscuit whereas I was only meant to have used a teaspoons worth. So for the second and third batch I used much less mixture for each biscuit which made them thinner in texture. I think because the biscuits where much thinner this caused them to collapse after being rolled into shape. My husband said that my collapsed brandy snaps looked like "half-squashed slugs".
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| The second batch of brandy snaps |
Once all the brandy snaps were baked and had hardened on the wire rack I dipped half of each brandy snap into melted milk chocolate. To sprinkle over the chocolate-coated biscuits I had flaked and chopped almonds. I first tried dipping the chocolate end of the brandy snap into a bowl of chopped almonds but this did not turn out to be very successful. The chocolate just dripped of the biscuit into the bowl which meant that I ended up with hardly any nuts on the brandy snap and a big lump of chocolate coated almonds in the bowl. The key I found was to sprinkle the nuts from the packet over each brandy snap. I also found that chopped almonds worked the best as the flaked almonds were too big to stick well to the brandy snap.
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| The finished brandy snaps |
The verdict
The brandy snaps tasted truly scrumptious and they were a big hit with everyone who tried them. I would definitely like to have another go at making them but I think next time I will double the quantities of the mixture stated in the recipe so that I can make thicker biscuits. This will hopefully ensure that none of the brandy snaps become "half-squashed slugs"!!!
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| Half-squashed slugs |
Next Week's Baking Challenge:
White Bread Loaf
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