It is Saturday and I’m feeling a bit down. Having had very bad backache for close to two weeks now doesn’t help.
Judging by my reaction to pain now, I suspect I’ll be one of these grumpy, self-obsessed old women one day. Except if I have the sense to feel people with buttery, sugary temptation.
There is something very satisfying at visceral level in feeding people. And, as an added bonus, this also means that my obsession with food and sweets is channelled into making rather than eating.
Today, I just got myself out of my book, took my eyes off the computer/TV screen and put my headphones on. Yes, I love cooking to my favourite music; today, it was the Doors (read somewhere that listening to sad music makes one feel better).
Made these biscuits from my mum’s old cook book; and because my imagination has taken a brief vacation ‘mouth watering walnut topped biscuits’ is the absolute best name I could come up with – if not very imaginative it is all true.
And, reputedly, eating walnuts – even when accompanied by 1,000 calories a look biscuit – is very good for us.
This is what you need to make biscuits with walnut topping
- 1 small mug (cup) of softened butter
- 1 small mug (cup) of caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- Vanilla
- Plain flour
- 1 small mug (cup) grated walnuts
Preparation
This recipe is not as straight forward as the other ones I’ve tried. Making walnut topped biscuits is best done in stages: this way a lot of time and fluster can be saved.
Step 1: Soften the butter. I used butter that was in the fridge and put it in the microwave (25 seconds at 70% power) to soften it. Worked like a dream.
Step 2: Separate the eggs. Separate the egg yolks and egg whites of two eggs.
Step 3: Beat the butter and sugar. For this you need a large mixing bowl and a hand mixer. You can get away without having one if you are very brave and have strong hands, and great beating technique. I have neither of those so I use my hand mixer. The mixture looks like this when done:
Step 4: Add the eggs. Add the egg yolks one by one and beat the mixture. Add the whole egg and beat again. This is what you’ll end up with:
Step 5: Add vanilla. I put three drops of liquid vanilla.
Step 6: Add plain flour. For this step I did the worse thing ever when it comes to standardising the recipe: I went with feeling. Which means that I added flour and mixed, added flour and mixed…until the dough can be lifted without leaving trace on the bowl. It looks like that:
Step 7: Hand knead the dough. I do this on a silicone sheet – this way I have to clean much less than if I don’t use it. I also use a lot of flour on the sheet and on my hands – you may be different but I really don’t like getting my hands dirty. Add flour and knead until you have a medium soft dough. It looks like this:
Step 8: Shape the biscuits. Spread the dough in a sheet that is about 3 mm. Use a biscuits form or a sherry glass to cut the biscuits. Place them on a tray (I use silicone sheet on the tray as well and don’t use oil; if you don’t use silicone don’t forget to spread oil on the tray.
Step 9: Make meringue mixture. Remember the two egg whites that you kept in a separate bowl? Use them and three table spoons of sugar to make the meringue mixture (if you don’t know how to do that you can find out here).
Step 10: Grate the walnuts. I used the food processor for that. You can do it anyway you wish but the walnuts have to be powdered.
Step 11: Fold the powdered walnuts in the meringue mixture.
Step 12: Put a tea spoon of the mixture on each biscuit and spread it evenly.
Step 13: Put the biscuits in a preheated (fan oven 160C) oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden pink.
This is all. Your biscuits are ready and they are delicious – I already tried them.
Cost estimate
This lot of biscuits costs approximately £1.50 in products.
It makes 30 biscuits which works out at 5 pence per biscuit.
It seems to me that this is another example of frugal artistry: whether you want to make something that your kids can snack on or you want to impress your friends who are coming for a cup of coffee. This recipe is (relatively) healthy. Yes it includes butter and sugar but apart from that the walnut topped biscuits contain only flour, egg and nuts. Shop bought biscuits contain between ten and fifteen ingredients.
It will take you up to 40 minutes to prepare. This may sound a bit long but if you are like me and cooking helps you relax it is not a waste of time but a form of meditation. And, as I said, you can listen to music or to an audio book.