Bourbons
I am sure it won’t have escaped your attention that Great British Bake Off is back. Still dividing opinion it would seem on whether it should be on Channel 4 or not, and how it isn’t the same with out Mary but it’s not about that for me. It’s about watching bakers create things in a tent and discussing on Twitter who our instant favourite is, and who we think will win.
Oh and what we think of Noel with short hair.
And with the return of #GBBO comes the return of #GBBOBloggers, a weekly bake along hosted by Jenny over at MummyMishaps where we bake along with the week’s theme and then blog about it. This year Jenny is also joined as host of the linky by Helen who blogs over at Casa Costello, and hopefully lots of other bloggers will join in each week too. It is a great way to show off our recipes and get to know other baking bloggers and their recipes.
A couple of years ago I was awarded star baker one week for my Jaffa Cakes (even if I did cause uproar on Twitter when I temporarily had them upside down mid assembly) and then I only went and won a major prize donated by Tesco for my Gin and Dubonnet Cake showstopper at the end of the series.
This year it is just for fun but I need an excuse to get back in the kitchen as baking makes me happy. I often create disasters but at least there is still a blog post in a culinary disaster, right?
This week I have made Bourbons as it is biscuit week. I did contemplate the showstopper of: “selfie somewhere special” but I don’t think there is enough biscuit dough in the world for that so I made Bourbons instead.
It is very simple recipe but just a bit fiddly at the end as you do need to pay a bit more attention than I did to the edges. And them being a uniform size. Pah to that though I say. It’s still a chocolate biscuit and there is rarely anything wrong with that:
- 100g butter
- 100g light brown sugar
- 30g golden syrup
- 150g self raising flour
- 50g cocoa
- 4tbs water
- *************
- 100g icing cugar
- 50g butter
- 20g cocoa powder
- 5 drops of vanilla extract
- Line two baking trays with parchment and pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees
- Cream together the butter, sugar and syrup
- Add remaining biscuit ingredients and mix until all combined (you may need more or less water).
- Tip dough onto work surface and roll to 5mm thick.
- Using a template cut out an even number of rectangles, roughly 3cm by 6cm.
- Place on baking trays and dot 10 holes using a skewer.
- Cook for 10 minutes.
- Cool on wire tray and make butter cream but mixing the second group of ingredients
- When biscuits are cool add a layer of butter cream to one side of half the biscuits and sandwich onto the other biscuits.
I’ve pinned this recipe. For some reason, we’ve never thought to try making our own bourbon biscuits.
Thanks for pinning it Shell!
Just letting you know you spelt sugar with wrong when you mention icing sugar on the second group of ingredients x
I think you have done an amazing job! I wouldn’t even know where to start with making homemade bourbons!!! Like you baking makes me happy and i’ve really been struggling to find anytime for baking since starting a new job a couple of months ago and it was beginning to get me down so I KNEW I had to join in with #GBBObloggers2018 to get back into baking again. I also have regular kitchen disasters (in fact i think the ratio of baking success versus baking failures is definitely heavier on the baking fails side!) but its all about having fun and learning as i go along. I adore the rustic look to your bourbons and would be far happier eating these than shop-bought ones. Brilliant baking. xxx
Thanks Rebecca. I really do enjoy baking, seeing simple ingredients come together into something vaguely edible that makes people smile. Can’t wait to follow your bakes on #GBBOBloggers2018 too
Ooh these look delicious, I love a bourbon but have never made them myself.
No I hadn’t either, and apart from the cutting of the dough being a bit fiddly they were suprisingly easy to make!
I’ve never attempted homemade bourbon biscuits but these do look very good!
Thanks Corina, they really didn’t last very long. And were easier to make than I thought they would be.
you are amazing!!! These look so good and I bet they tasted incredible too. I am going to have to give these a go myself because we all love bourbons in my house. Uniform sized? pah! I love the fact that they have character!
Thank you for joining in with the bake along again 🙂
Thanks Jenny. No surprise that they have all gone!
They do look great. I agree with you, chocolate biscuits are so good.
oooh these look yummy! I found your blog via the #bibs shortlist – good luck!
thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment!
These look delicious. I have never seen homemade bourbon biscuits before! I am definitely going to try this recipe myself.