Annie Rigg - Great British Bake Off – Bake it Better (No.2): Biscuits

Would you like to learn to be a better baker?

We know that so many people watch The Great British Bake Off for the tips and techniques you pick up not only from the judges, but from watching the bakers too. We wanted to distil that knowledge into a library of cookbooks that are specifically designed to take you from novice to expert baker. Individually, each book covers the skills you will want to perfect so that you can master a particular area of baking everything from cakes to bread, sweet pastries to pies.

We have chosen recipes that are classics of each type, and grouped them together so that they take you on a progression from Easy does it through Needs a little skill to Up for a challenge. Put together, the full series of books will give you a comprehensive collection of the best recipes, along with all the advice you need to become a better baker.

The triumphs and lessons of the bakers in the tent show us that not everything works every time. But I hope that with these books as your guide, we have given you a head start towards baking it better every time!

Linda Collister

Series Editor

www.hodder.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 2015
by Hodder & Stoughton
An Hachette UK company
1
Copyright Love Productions Limited 2015

Design and Photography Copyright Hodder & Stoughton 2015

The right of Annie Rigg to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

BBC and the BBC logo are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.
BBC logo BBC 1996.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Hardback ISBN 978 1 473 615274
Ebook ISBN 978 1 473 615281

Editorial Director: Nicky Ross
Editor: Sarah Hammond
Project Editor: Laura Herring
Series Editor: Linda Collister
Art Director: James Edgar
Layouts: Andrew Barker
Photographer: Amanda Heywood
Food Stylist: Joanna Farrow
Props Stylist: Linda Berlin

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ

www.hodder.co.uk

Contents

BAKE IT BETTER
Bakers Guide

BAKE IT BETTER
Recipes

Easy does it

Need a little skill

Up for a challenge

There are few greater pleasures than sitting down with a cup of tea and a home-made biscuit and this book offers 40 classic biscuit recipes to get you going.

As well as being great bakes, the recipes have been carefully chosen to introduce you to all the key techniques, like rubbing-in, creaming, shaping and piping, that not only set you up to bake better biscuits, but which you can use in all sorts of other bakes.

Start with the Easy does it section and master the basics with recipes like Icebox Cookies, then, as you grow in confidence, you can be ready to move to the recipes that Need a little skill Linzer Jammy Dodgers perhaps, some delectable Viennese Whirls. And the more you bake, the sooner you will find that you are Up for a challenge with sophisticated Mochaccino Macarons, or testing your decorating skills with a stunning fairy tale Gingerbread House.

The colour strip on the right-hand side of the page tells you at a glance the level of difficulty of the recipe (from one spoon for easy to three spoons for more of a challenge), and gives you a helpful checklist of the special equipment you will use. Before you begin, have a look at the Bakers Guide at the beginning of the book. That will tell you what equipment you need to get started (just a bowl, a spoon and a baking tray will do!), introduce you to the most important ingredients, and explain some terms and techniques in more detail.

Biscuits can be a simple snack or a comforting mouthful of love, but even the most basic biscuit is a joy to make and eat. The Bake It Better: Biscuits book will show you just what you can do with butter, sugar, flour and eggs, so lets grab our wooden spoons and get baking!

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

SECTION 1: BAKERS GUIDE

Read this section before you start baking. The Bakers Guide contains key information on ingredients () relevant to the recipes in the book.

Refer back the Bakers Guide when youre baking if you want a refresher on a particular skill. In the recipes the first mention of each skill is highlighted in bold.

SECTION 2: RECIPES

Colour strips on the right-hand side and 1, 2 or 3 spoons show the level of difficulty of the recipe. Within the colour strips youll find helpful information to help you decide what to bake: Hands-on time; Baking time; Quantity and Special equipment.

Refresh your knowledge of any Essential skills by referring to the Bakers Guide before you get started.

Refer back to the Bakers Guide when a skill is highlighted in bold in the recipe if you need a reminder.

Try Something Different options are given where the recipe lends itself to experimenting with ingredients or decorations.

Easy does it

Need a little skill

Up for a challenge

The simplest biscuits require just a few ingredients: butter, sugar, flour and maybe an egg, but usually youll be adding flavourings to these key elements. Knowing a bit more about the ingredients before you use them will help to avoid problems and lead to more successful bakes. Here are a few simple guidelines to bear in mind when youre buying, storing and using your ingredients.

BAKING POWDER, BICARBONATE OF SODA AND CREAM OF TARTAR

Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda are chemical raising agents commonly used in baking, most often in small quantities, to lighten the texture of biscuits as well as to create volume and produce a tender crumb. Baking powder is a blend of bicarbonate of soda (an alkali) and cream of tartar (an acid) and sometimes also corn or rice flour to absorb any moisture that might be present. The two raising agents work by reacting with the moisture in your biscuit, and the heat from the oven, to produce carbon dioxide bubbles that lift, and lighten, the crumb.