pepparkakor - swedish ginger thins

If you've ever stepped into a supermarket in Sweden (the food section in your local Ikea will provide the next best alternative, albeit possibly with equine occupation) you may know about pepparkakor. 

If the name doesn't ring a bell, the description may - very thin and very crisp dark spiced biscuits, also known as ginger thins or ginger snaps. I picked up a couple of boxes when visiting Stockholm over Easter, one for home and one to take to work for colleagues. Turns out I ate most of both boxes as it's almost impossible to dull the come hither tones of their unique texture and mildly fiery flavour. 

They're not like any other biscuit I've encountered - incredibly light and completely void of moisture lending to their unmistakable crispness. And those who did get a chance to dip in a paw before I managed to scoff the contents of both boxes thoroughly enjoyed them for the same reasons.

Short of having to drive to Ikea in Croydon every time I wish to replenish the stock (which has long since dwindled to a painful pepparkakor void), I soon realised the only solution would be to find a recipe and make them (regularly) myself. 

After quite a bit of research, it turns out achieving the signature snap is a challenge. There are online stories of bakers making dozens of batches with varying degrees of ingredients, still unable to claim victory over the elusive and unique texture. Suggestions involve excluding any fat whatsoever in order to remove all moisture. Others say bake for longer at a lower temperature. Further advice speaks of using very strong and unfamiliar raising agents for the tough dough.

Well, I found a recipe and a process that read right to me. I tried it, and I nailed it first time. If you want to achieve the same texture and flavour as those boxed Swedish thins, use this recipe.

This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated Magazine (November 2011) and is an absolute corker. It is also incredibly quick and easy to make the dough - the majority of your time will be spent rolling and cutting out the individual biscuits. 

The recipe suggests this makes about 80 biscuits but I've ended up with double - I suspect I've rolled the dough half as thin as the recipe has. So  if you do in fact want 80, I would half the below ingredients. Or you'll end up with 160 biscuits filling up two large Tupperware boxes. Not a bad situation to be in, in my opinion. Keep them airtight and they'll last you for as long as two people with an average biscuit intake would need to eat them.

Pepparkakor

Makes 80 (or around 160 very thin ones as in the pictures)
2 1/2 cups plain flour

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

170g unsalted butter

4 tbsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp pepper

Pinch cayenne

1 1/4 cups packed dark brown soft sugar

1/4 cup molasses or black treacle

1 large egg plus 1 large yolk

Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in bowl. In the meantime, heat the butter in a pan over a medium heat until melted. Lower the heat to medium-low and continue to cook, swirling the pan frequently, until the foaming subsides and the butter is just beginning to brown. Turn off the heat.

Whisk in all the spices and then add the brown sugar and molasses to the butter mixture and whisk to combine until the sugar has melted and you have a smooth mixture. Add the egg and yolk and mix again with the whisk to combine. You should have a dark, sticky, smooth and glossy mixture.

Pour this mixture into your bowl of flour and combine with a spatula until you have a dough - don't over work it. Cover the bowl with cling film and keep in the fridge for the butter to firm, at least an hour.

Adjust your oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 130C (fan). Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper or silicone paper. Break off a portion of the dough and with your hands mound into a round and squash down. Take a rolling pin and slowly roll it out - if the edges are dry and crack, smooth them out with your fingers and continue rolling slowly. If any of the dough sticks to your rolling pin, just reverse the roll to remove it and join it back to the main mass. 

Roll them about as thin as 1mm - don't worry, they do rise a little in the oven. Use a small cookie cutter to cut out your shapes. Carefully lift each biscuit and place on your baking trays - leave a slight gap between each as they do expand slightly. You will fit about twenty per baking tray. Gather up the remaining dough and join with the rest of the mass. Break off another portion and repeat the process until all your dough is used up.

Place one tray on the upper rack and while it's baking, roll out and fill up your next tray. After 15 minutes or so, transfer the partially baked top tray to the lower rack and rotate 180 degrees. Place your second tray of biscuits on the upper rack. When your first tray is done, remove from the oven and transfer each biscuit to a cooling rack. Bring the top tray down to the bottom shelf, and continue this rotation until you've cooked all your biscuits. The biscuits are done when they are hard to touch and just darkening around the edges - around 15-20 minutes.

Tip The dough can be refrigerated for up to two days or frozen for up to one month if you want to get ahead. Let the dough stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before shaping. Let frozen dough thaw overnight before proceeding with the recipe. 

Settle down on a comfy arm chair in the evening with half a dozen thins, a glass of cold milk and a good read. I'm sold. 

Afiyet olsun.

Edible Christmas Gifts - II

The majority of the homemade Christmas gifts I have cooked up this year seem to have an Italian theme. And there's certainly nothing wrong with that. What better way to tackle the excesses from the festive night before than with a strong dark espresso complemented beautifully by a sweet Italian riciarelli biscuit the morning after. Sounds good to me. I hope my friends think so too.

These little biscuits can often be found in the window displays of Italian cafés. They originate from Siena and are essentially a combination of ground almonds and icing sugar, bound together by egg whites. Wonderfully simple and enjoyable to make.

Riciarelli biscuits

Sweet Italian almond biscuits, perfect with the morning's strong coffee. No flour involved.

Makes about 24 biscuits

1. 250g ground almonds
2. 250g icing sugar, plus extra to coat
3. ½ tsp baking powder
4. 2 large free-range egg whites
5. 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix well so they're equally distributed. In a separate large bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff. Add the vanilla extract to the bowl of dry ingredients, then fold in the egg whites using a metal spoon or spatula. Don’t worry too much about knocking the air out of the egg whites – the dough will quite bit sticky and heavy.
2. Tip If you want 24 pieces, divide your dough in half, then quarters, then eighths. Then divide each of these into three pieces, and you'll end up with 24 separate pieces of dough. Separating the portions out all at once before creating each biscuit means you'll be more successful in keeping them closer to the same size. If you would like each biscuit to be small (say half the size of the ones in the picture) then feel free to divide each final piece into two for 48 pieces. Don't forget that these would cook quicker.
   
   Shape each of these pieces of dough into a ball, then roll in a shallow dish of icing sugar to coat. Flatten the ball lightly in the palms of your hands, then pinch the sides into a rough diamond shape. Lay on a non-stick baking sheet about a centimetre apart (they do puff up a little during the cooking process), then repeat with the remaining dough.
3. Tip You can of course choose any shape for the biscuits. Trying to make all the diamonds look uniform and not like squares on their side can be a bit fiddly, so feel free to opt for the flattened ball, or perhaps a flattened oval.
   
   
   Transfer to the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes until the biscuits start to turn golden brown. Remove the tray from the oven.Leave the ricciarelli to cool completely on the tray (pick one up early and it will leave its base on the tray). Once cool, you can lift them easily off the sheet with a flat knife. Give them another light dusting of icing sugar and they're ready to enjoy.

   
   

   In order to package these up as gifts, I had initially intended to store them in glass jars. However, they turned out far too large to fit into them (I will make the biscuits in my next batch much smaller so I can do so). Instead, I decided to stack them and wrap in cellophane.
   
   I did so by taking a long strip of plastic, laying a row of the biscuits on top of it and bringing in the bottom and sides of the cellophane and securing with clear tape, a bit like wrapping a present.  I then gathered the excess at the top and secured with jute string. I tried to make sure any gaps in the wrapping were sealed so it was as airtight as possible, to prevent the biscuits from going soft. Regardless, I informed the recipients that once they had enjoyed the decoration, it would probably be best to transfer them to Tupperware in order to keep them fresher for longer.
   
   

   These are simple, beautiful and delicious gifts, well received by my wonderful friends and family they were intended for.
   
   There is no need to restrict the making of these to just the festive period - they are worthy in their own right to be rustled up at any time of year.
   
   A perfect way of using up egg whites left over from some decadent chocolate fondants, perhaps.
   
   Afiyet olsun.

italian meringue

A question posed: how does one pep up a biting Monday morning after risking life and wheels navigating paths past bullish London bus drivers through Tooting in the morning rush hour? ‘With baked goods’ is the answer to that question.

My introduction (and by introduction I mean mandatory enforcement) of Baking Monday’s to my department commenced with my week being first up. Any excuse to exercise the elite biscuit making set complete with stainless steel icing gun – shamefully its first outing since given to me as a gift last Christmas from Matt.

Two hours and rolls of parchment later, I’ve managed my first attempt at Italian meringue in the form of amaretti biscuits. Double the amount than in the picture was made, with the most perfectly round and uniform ones selected for show and colleague consumption.  

They have the signature initial crunch quickly turning to chew. Anonymous and unanimous votes of 4/5 all round from colleagues, with many coming back for seconds, thirds and into double digits – the best rating of all.

Amaretti Biscuits

Perfect with the morning's strong coffee.

Makes 15-20

125g ground almonds125g icing sugar
3tsp plain flour
2 egg whites
75g caster sugar
1tsp almond extract

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F / Gas 4).  Mix the sugar, ground almonds and flour in a bowl so they’re evenly distributed.Whist the egg whites in a clean and dry bowl until soft peaks form, then add the sugar a tablespoon at a time until the mixture becomes stiff and shiny.

Tip I whisked these in my newly purchased electric food mixer – much easier to add sugar with two hands free.  If you don’t have an electric mixer stand than an electric hand whisk will do the job fine – just try to secure your bowl as you won’t be able to hold it whilst you’re adding the sugar with the other hand.

Fold in the almond mixture and almond extract until just blended.  Be sure not to over work the mixture with your spatula as you’ll lose all the air you just worked so hard to get.  Fold until just combined.

Spoon the mixture in a piping bag and pipe into 3-4 cm wide mounds well spaced out onto baking paper.  No need to grease the paper first.  I found using a relatively wide plain nozzle looked neatest.  Use a wet finger to smooth the top of each mound. The more you do here the more uniform they’ll look when cooked – don’t spend to long on this though.  Bake until they just start to turn light brown.

Tip This time will vary depending on the size of the biscuits you’ve piped but I found 3cm wide ones only took 5-10 minutes or so.  Which is strange as the original recipe states 40 minutes.  Any dark brown bits will taste burnt and be all crisp and no chew.

Carefully slide something thin underneath each one to remove from the paper – I used a bowl scraper. Turn the oven off and leave the door ajar with the biscuits inside – this will allow them to dry out.  Remove once cool and store in an air tight container. Scoffing a good few whilst still warm is recommended. 

What’s especially pleasing is that this weekly occurrence has spurred colleagues of mine who have never before sought after those illustrious stiff peaks of the egg white to don the apron, pre-heat the oven and pick up a wooden spoon.  

Not only was it their first practice attempt, but they enjoyed it.  Enjoyed it so much that baking will now feature as a regular in their daily lives.  Baking love shared. 

Alfiyet olsun.