Risk it for a Biscuit?

Why hello there, it has been a while, hasn’t it?

In all honesty, I don’t really have time to write this blog post, but I thought I’d sneak it in anyhow. Who needs to sleep? The Festivals are still in full swing - I went to seven shows over the weekend, including the incredible a capppella group, The Magnets - we’re all still dodging the flyers (it doesn’t bother me whether you’re dressed in drag or as a dinosaur, or think that putting your flyer in a plastic cup makes it more ‘alternative’, I still don’t want it). But would I have it any other way? No, no I would not. It’s mad, but we love it. Give me random nights out till 2am and then having to get up for work in the morning over boredom any day. Although perhaps my liver would disagree.

I decided to take a bit of a break from it on Sunday morning though and do some baking. It’s only been two weeks since I last baked, but it feels like forever. Also, the Great British Bake Off starts again tonight (!!!!!!!!!) so it seemed rude not to get covered in icing sugar and bake myself a sweet treat. Conveniently, the biscuits I made could also have some Pimm’s added in to them, so I can also enter these into Baking with Spirit (hosted by Janine, over at Cake of the Week). I completely ran out of time for last month’s challenge, so I’m happy to be able to get back into it this month. This month’s challenge was using something that makes us think of summer - there was only one booze I could use: Pimm’s. The epitome of British summertime drinking. These were originally going to be an elaborate cake, with summer fruits, Pimm’s and shed-loads of icing, but since I made something similar a few weeks ago and ran a little short on time, my entry turned into slightly over-baked biscuits…

The Fringe ends next weekend and the Festival Fireworks (which mark the end of all the festivals) are the following Sunday - after that I might get back to blogging on a regular basis, and possibly get that balanced diet thing on the go again (apparently having a pint in each hand doesn’t count!). Until then, here are some photos of biscuits with lurid pink icing and a photo of some Fringe performers (at least I assume they are) posing in the Ross Fountain in Princes Street Gardens. Nope, I’ve no idea what they were doing either.

Pimm’s & Raspberry Biscuits

These biscuits are loosely based on a recipe from the Great British Bake Off’s book, but they don’t look anything like they’re supposed to, so I’m not going to tell you which recipe they’re from. This recipe makes about 8 pairs.

Ingredients

for the biscuits:
125g plain flour
65g icing sugar
125g butter
6 frozen raspberries
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

for the icing:
50g icing sugar
15g butter
4 raspberries
2 tbsp Pimm’s

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line a tray with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together so that they are smooth and light. Whisk in the flour and vanilla until the mixture is smooth. Bash the frozen raspberries up until they are in little fragments, then stir them into the dough.

Pipe the dough into circles on the lined trays. The domes should be about 5cm in diameter and 2cm tall. Bake in the centre of the oven for 13-15 minutes until they are golden brown. Take from the oven and allow them to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Allow to cool completely.

To make the icing, put the icing sugar and butter in a bowl and carefully (to avoid an icing sugar eruption) beat them together until light and fluffy. Crush in the raspberries and the Pimm’s, mix into a paste. Dollop a small amount onto the flat side of one biscuit and and another one on top. Repeat until all the pairs of biscuits are used.

Craig (246 Posts)

Edinburgh-dwelling, baking and food-obsessed, twenty-something adventure enthusiast. Runs on liberal amounts of coffee, cheese, cake and gin; bribable with same.