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Monday 2 June 2014

Hob Nobs

I came across this recipe from Lovefood.com who I subscribe to, and give various inspirations for my cooking and baking, so decided to use it as a base. LINK

I certainly felt my pedantic, 'put your money where your mouth is' side coming out, when I read the claim that these are better than the famed (and beloved) shop bought type.

Now I'm a huge advocate of DIY, however I have somehow always thought of my edible creations as satisfying a different need (treats for friends, family, and colleagues), rather than replacing a current one (I need sweet stuff, buy the shop stuff!). If that makes sense.

Anyhoo, to cut a long story short, I wanted to try these, as English biscuits (when available) are ridiculously expensive here in Stockholm, which goes against my thrifty ways, which nevertheless miraculously vanish in the face of Immediate Need.

So I did indeed try them; the ingredients and measurements are simple; a quarter of a kilo for the base of SR flour, sugar, - not specified which type, so freestyle! - butter; I used unsalted, but I think salted would be fine, and oats - I've been looking for a loose reason to use my jumbo ones, and the lack of specification let me do just that!

The instructions advise you to roll the dough out, however I felt my mixture was a bit loose (perhaps the use of jumbo oats didn't help), so I opted to shape the individual biscuits by hand. This also showed me that the mix was a bit greasy, I reckon it wouldn't hurt to reduce the butter by 20-50 g.

I made 29 biscuits in all, and they do indeed taste like the hob nobs many of us know and love, and I do give my Baking Fanatic stamp of approval: they are better than the shop bought ones!

Tin o' Biscuits
I have since tried these using a finer oat, and no other changes. They were still scrummy!

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Sunday 1 June 2014

Swedish Butterscotch and Sea Salt Cookies

Recipe base from Not Quite Nigella (LINK)

I was drawn to this recipe as I am yet to try Swedish baking (minor crimelet as I live in Sweden), and this seemed remarkably simple. It did not disappoint! Very easy to make, tasted lovely, despite some improvisation with the ingredients; milda margarine rather than unsalted butter, ground salt instead of sea salt, vanilpulver rather than vanilla extract (the last being more authentic to Sweden, so nyeh!).

As I have a 'hasty' oven, I removed the biscuits after 10 minutes, but other than that, the instructions were followed.

They were very tasty, and as noted by Not Quite Nigella (NQN), a reward far outweighed by the effort.

Definitely one to do again! I also had two Swedes try them out, and they said they tasted authentic: result!

Easy Peasy