Spiced Gingery Snappy Biscuits

I've never been very good at biscuits

I've never been very good at making biscuits. I've only really ever attempted them a handful of times, but they always end up either too floppy, or you can taste the floury/doughy yuckiness of undercooked baked goods. Or they burn. or the recipe was plain just tasteless ('cinnamon treats' were not the treat they had promised). This one, however I think worked out pretty well! They were supposed to snap- and they do. Crunchy, tasty, spicy sweet biscuits that were simple to make. I adapted the recipe from the Marks and Spencer's christmas book 2009.

Ingredients:

225g plain flour

165g dark soft brown sugar

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1 clove, smashed pretty finely

150g butter, chopped

1 egg yolk

Method:

-  Put everything except the yolk in to a food processor and blitz until crumbly. Add the yolk and pulse until combined.
- tip out on to a clean surface and bring together until a solid dough is formed (mine was really dry so took a while- be persistent). Once fully combined, knead until smooth: not for too long. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 mins.
- Cut in half and place one half on a sheet of foil or baking paper. Place another sheet on top and roll to a thickness of about 3mm. Repeat with the other half, then put both in the fridge for another 30.
- heat the oven to gas 4/180C. Line 2 baking sheets. Cut out shapes from the dough (I got around 24 by using a 6 cm plain cutter, but you could also use a ginger bread man or any other shape). Bake for 11 minutes then leave to cool on the trays.

Baked Chai Cheesecake

From the top.

This is the cake that my boyfriend requests the most. It's really simple, rich and creamy, yet light at the same time. It's baked, so it doesn't have a wobbly gelatine mousse like texture to it. The general recipe is always a winner so you could alter the flavours when the mood takes you- lemon, vanilla...I think that a sharp, zingy one would work well. I really like the chai flavours, sweetly spiced with hints of cinnamon, ginger and cardamom. I use a chai masala mix that I got in India, but you can use any kind-or if you have chai teabags, just stew a few in the milk for 20 minutes. The amount of eggs and cream cheese in the recipe means it's more of a New York style bake, which is why you get the slightly higher crust. It takes a while to cook- 4 hours in total, but most of this is just leaving the oven door open. It can be made 24 hours in advance, great for when you have a few friends over!


Ingredients:
375g digestives (or gingernuts)
175g melted butter
500g cream cheese
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
75ml milk
1 tablespoon masala tea
1 star anise
2 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 clove
1 breakfast teabag
300ml double cream
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
zest of a lime and the juice of 1/2


Method:
- grease a 20cm spring form, high sided tin and heat the oven to gas mark 4
- blitz the biscuits in a food processor until fine. Add the melted butter and process for 15 seconds. Tip in to the tin and flatten. Make sure it's well packed or it will crumble apart later. Put in the fridge for an hour.

uber strong chai

- meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan. Add the chai, the teabag and all the spices (not the vanilla or the lime). Bring to the boil then allow to stew while the base firms up. Strain and add to the cream.
- whisk together the cheese and the sugar. Add the eggs and the cream and whisk until well combined. Bash (with care) the bowl on to the side to remove any big bubbles.
- fold in the flour, vanilla, zest and juice. Pour in to the tin and bake for 1 hour. It should rise quite a bit and go brown on the surface. There should also be a slight wobble in the middle. If it's cracked, the oven may be too high. After the hour's up and it looks about done, turn off the oven and leave it in there fro 2 hours. Then open the door and leave it be for another hour. Goodness! THEN refrigerate overnight- or till it's cold if you want it now. 

it went down a treat!