Last weekend, I baked a batch of David Lebovitz’ chocolate biscotti. Actually, I attempted two batches, but owing to a bad case of brain fog, I omitted the sugar the first time and then burnt the almonds. Attempt #2 was more successful. As these are one of my favourite cookies, it was well worth the effort!
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I also tried this new recipe by Dan Lepard for red Leicester cheese biscuits (cookies). They were very easy to make and as my boys aren’t fans of caraway, I rolled them in poppy seeds. The entire batch was eaten that evening!
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Finally, I made Jamie Oliver’s Ultimate Gingerbread – appealing because I was making shortbread cookies as a gift, and had a half batch of dough leftover. The recipe appears in his book Cook with Jamie, and suggests using either homemade or shopbought shortbread as a starting point. Here’s my take on the recipe…
- 400g shortbread (I used cookies made with our shortbread freezer dough)
- 170g raw or demerara sugar
- 3 teaspoons ground ginger
- 40g mixed peel (I used some Italian cedro)
- 40g crystallised ginger
- 70g plain (AP) flour
- pinch of baking powder
- 40g treacle
- 40g date molasses (original recipe specified golden syrup)
- 70g unsalted butter
1. I began by baking a batch of unsugared shortbead cookies, although shop bought or other homemade shortbread should also work fine in this recipe. Preheat the oven to 170C (340F) or 160C (320F) with fan. Line a tray with parchment paper – I used my 23cm x 33cm (9″ x 13″) baking pan.
2. Blitz the cookies in a food processor with the sugar and two teaspoons of the ground ginger to form crumbs. Remove 100g of the crumbs for later use.
3. Chop the peel and crystallised ginger, then add them to the food processor with the flour, baking powder and the remaining teaspoon of ground ginger. Pulse the mixture until well combined.
4. In a big stock pot (it needs to be large enough to hold all the mixture), melt together the butter, treacle and date molasses (or golden syrup) and then add all the ingredients from the food processor (excluding the reserved crumbs) and stir really well to combine.
5. Scrape the gingerbread mixture into the lined baking pan and spread it out evenly with a spatula or clean hands. It will be very flat and dense. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
6. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the reserved crumbs evenly over the top. Press down firmly on the crumbs with a spatula to stick them to the hot gingerbread. Cut the gingerbread into serving size slices, then leave to cool completely in the pan before serving.
This recipe isn’t for everyone, but for true ginger aficionados, it’s a great treat with a cup of hot tea or coffee!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Looks like you’re getting a good jump on Christmas baking – Beautiful stuff!
Doc, thank you! The biscotti and cheese biscuits are a definite, but gingerbread isn’t as generically popular, so I’ll have to choose who to give that too.. :)
What a great looking selection of biscuits. They all look so appealing I wouldn’t know which to start with! :)
I haven’t seen the Jamie Oliver recipe before – most unusual but very tasty looking. Daughter is supposed to be bringing me some cocoa nibs when she comes home for the weekend – they might make a good substitute for the candied peel which I don’t think would be liked much here.
Suelle, thank you! That JO recipe is so unusual in its construction that I had to give it a whirl..
I want your biscuits I want your biscuits I want your biscuits I want your biscuits I want your biscuits I want your biscuits
I think my comments are developing in maturity and style don’t you? :) Honestly, how can you post those and expect me to read about them calmly without drooling all over the keyboard. ‘That gingerbread looks divine, Darling’ as they say on TV xx
Your comments are perfect. Kettle’s on, dahling, come on over.. ;-)
The cheese cookies look wonderful! I’m not sure if I can get red Leicester here. I’ll have to look. Have you ever tried the recipe with another kind of cheese?
Maz.
Maz, I’ve only made this once (Dan’s recipe only came out last week) but I do think you could use any sort of hard cheddar style cheese. Joanna? Suelle? Can you recommend a reasonable sub for the red leicester?
Cheddar would be the most obvious substitute for Red Leicester cheese, but any of the hard but not too dry cheeses should work as well. Most of the traditional British cheeses would work. Parmesan, and similar very hard cheeses, might be too dry.
Where in the world are you, Marilyn?
Suelle! Hello!
I live in lovely suburban Southern California, ten miles from Disneyland and two miles from the beach.
Thanks for the cheese advice. There are places that sell a myriad of kinds so I might just have to take a field trip in search of the perfect cheese. :-)
http://thetoymakersjournal.blogspot.com/
Hi Marilyn – I can’t see a way of replying to your last comment. I think an American cheese lsuch as Monterey Jack is quite similar to British hard cheeses such as cheddar.
Suelle! I look around for some hard cheddar. Our cheddar can range from really good and sharp to Velveeta mush. :-)
How about Wensleydale? I can get that.
I think Wensleydale would be OK, although it’s quite mild in flavour. A mature cheddar would have a better flavour.
You have been so busy! You bake more on a weekend than I do all week! But then your boys are younger and still eating handfuls of cookies.
Mine are more restrained- growth spurts are over and waistlines are being watched.
These look fantastic- so I’m figuring them into my Christmas and holiday baking!
Celia… Your energy never ceases to amaze me. Those cheese buscuits look delish. As well as everything else you made. Like I say to you often you inspire me on a regular basis. Off to the kitchen I go……B
Heidi, we had family in town over the weekend, so the cheese biscuits and gingerbread was baked for a party. But you’re right, the boys eat an astonishing amount of food at the moment!
Beth, thank you! The cheese biscuits were really easy – hope you enjoy them! I think they’d be very good with caraway seed, but then I would have been the only person eating them… :)
Hmmm those biscotti are good. Did you use chopped nuts? I knead in whole roasted hazelnuts. Maybe I should chop??
Gill, I always use almond slivers – I like them better than whole nuts in biscotti. Also, I tried toasting them, but I kept burning them – the ones in the photos have untoasted nuts in them, and they’re fine…
Oh YUM, those cheese biscuits look amazing!! I adore cheese, and putting them in biscuits is a genius idea. Mum used to make cheese straws when I was little, and these kind of remind me of those.
You were a baking machine this weekend, go you!
Amy, I love savoury cheese baked things too! Problem with cheese biscuits and cookies is that they never ever last here – they’re always demolised before the day is through! :)
I don’t like carraway either! I’m a big fan of gingery things so I might give the JO recipe a try. I make a rich, dark gingerbread cake that MiddleC has for her birthday every year. And of course 1000’s of gingerbread cookies. When do you crank up the gingerbread express for Christmas Celia?
R, unlikely, I find too many of my friends don’t like the ginger. But the ones that do, absolutely adore the flavour! :)
Oo la la! The gingerbread looks/sounds like just the thing. Yum Celia!
I love ginger, but I fear that if I made these I would eat them all at one sitting.
Celia I make a ginger biscotti, using crystalised ginger, every Xmas to give as gifts too and it is always a winner!
I’m afraid the cheese bikkies wouldn’t last until gift giving in this house.
Gosh Celia I am trying to be good about avoiding gluten and dairy and your blog is really not helping. Those chocolate biscotti are calling out to me….
The chocolate biscotti sound right up my alley! Maybe I’ll make a trial batch this weekend. They look like they’d make a good Christmas gift too.
You are always so busy in the kitchen – you are really such an inspiration!
:-) Mandy
You are playing with my mind, woman!
Thank you all for your kind comments! SG and Claire, the biscotti are definitely my favourite too – Pete asked me to make them with tempered chocolate on both sides..hehe
Amanda, I’m going to experiment with more biscotti recipes, they’re fun to make!
Wow I love the look of those cheese biscuits! I think that’s hilarious that you are such an amazing cook and yet had to give up on toasting almond slivers for burning (no doubt too many things going at once)!
Wow you’ve been so busy Celia! Is this brain food for the boys during exam time? ;)
All look delicious and I need the ginger shortbread with my cup of tea NOW!
Gosh Celia – you’ve had a real baking spree here. Love David Lebovitz’ recipes too…., in fact love all your choices. Oh…., and that seafood platter you had at the Fish Markets…., W O N D E R F U L :):)
Celia – wonderful biscuits all. I’ll have to whip up a batch or two of biscotti for Christmas – haven’t made any for a few years. As already stated am very excited about the gingerbread, but at the moment I really fancy your cheese biscuits – yum.
I think you have photoshopped your picture – no-one can cook all these yummy htings and be so slim!
Lee, dear…
1. I didn’t eat all of these cookies, well, maybe the biscotti..
2. Not a photoshopped pic, but it was taken a loooong time ago. I now have a face like the moon. :)
Sarah, thank you, I do toast them for chocolates, but honestly, I burn as many as I get right! Maybe I should start toasting them in a pan.. ;-)
Lorraine, no this was all for the family do over the weekend! Big Boy has finished exams – hooray!!
Anna, we’ll have to make this next time you’re here!
AnnaJ, thanks! The biscotti recipe is so yummy – I think I love dark cocoa in biscuits, gives them a lovely flavour, reminiscent of the old politically incorrect Golliwog biscuits we all grew up on.. :)
Choc, thank you! The cheese cookies went down a treat with the the extended fam!
Haha, I do like that term “Brain Fog”!! I may take it on board, goodness knows I am vague enough half (most of) the time!
You certainly have been busy in the kitchen, Celia. Biscotti would have to be one of my favourite treats but I have never gotten around to making it! Yours looks delicious. And the cheese cookies sound very tasty. I’d be rolling them in something else too as we are an anti-caraway household. A big cheer for exams being over!! :)
Oh my gosh, you’ve been busy this weekend! Yummy, I want some of that biscotti!
Crystalized ginger is my favorite… :) I particularly love it in curried tuna salad – crazy but true! :)
Chris, I suffer a lot from brain fog.. ;-)
And thank you, yes, hooray for exams being over! This is the only biscotti recipe I’ve ever made, but I’m going to try some different ones soon.
Honey, when you and Soy move next door, you can pop over for these whenever you like…hahaha
Sasha, wow, interesting combination!
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