Friday, February 10, 2006

Brandy Snap Baskets

For SHF#16, Brandy snaps (sourced from Stephanie Alexander's "The Cooks Companion) have been moulded to form small baskets and filled with a strawberry vanilla cream mix.


brandysnap basketĀ© by haalo





Brandy Snaps
½ cup golden syrup
100g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon brandy
½ cup brown sugar
80g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger


Preheat the oven to 160°C and line tray with baking paper.

Combine golden syrup, butter and brandy in small saucepan over moderate heat until butter has melted. Stir to mix but do not boil. Sift dry ingredients into bowl then make a well and pour in liquid. Stir until smooth.

For this recipe I'm making these into small baskets so I'll only use 2 tablespoons of the mix to make each Brandy snap. Naturally if you'd like to make large brandy snaps just use 3-4 tablespoons of the mix.

Place the 2 spoonfuls of mix on the baking paper and spread the mix out to form a circle trying to create an even thickness. Leave plenty of room for spreading. I recommend if making large ones to limit yourselves to only 2 biscuits per tray - with the smaller version you can probably handle 4.

Bake for about 7 minutes - you want the mix to get a dark toffee colour. Don't be tempted to pull them out early - they just won't harden or form any shapes.

Once you've pulled them out of the oven, wait about a minute to give the brandy snaps a chance to begin to harden. Peel them off the paper and mould them over the base of a small cup (if you are wanting to make baskets) otherwise you can drape them over rolling pins to create the more traditional curved result.

When completely cold, store them in an airtight container. These biscuits do have a limited life, 1 - 2 days before they start to soften. Only fill them an hour or so before you intend to serve them.




Whipped Strawberry Vanilla Cream
½ cup cream
20g castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
6 ripe strawberries


In a small saucepan add the quartered strawberries, sugar and a tablespoon of water. Let it cook over a low heat, allowing the sugar to dissolve and the strawberries to begin to break down. Set aside and cool. When cold, mash the berries roughly with a fork.

Whip the cream with the vanilla bean paste until thick. Fold in the cool, mashed strawberry mixture.

Dollop in a few spoonfuls of this mixture into the baskets and serve.


brandysnap basketsĀ© by haalo

2 comments

  1. These look amazing! I tried a different recipe and mine flopped, but I think that next time I will try this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanx.
    im a year 9 school child and you have helped me alot. thanx again. I hope to see more of your lovely recipies

    ReplyDelete

© Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once | All rights reserved.
BLOG TEMPLATE HANDCRAFTED BY pipdig