Lemon Biscuits

Friday was the last day for one of my colleagues in my office. She is transferring to another department and thus would be moving to another office. What a pity, I will have one less lunch company. She is one of the few ones I feel more comfortable talking to in the office.

For the whole week, I was thinking of what I could give her. Cupcakes....chocolate flavour would be nice, but oh dear, the doctor has advised her not to take chocolates or "heaty" stuff for the time being due to some health reasons.

I finally decided to make some biscuits and put them into a nice jar, with a nice ribbon. But by the time I decided on this, I did not have much time, and I did not manage to get any nice jars. Without chocolate and nuts as ingredients, I thought I could use lemon to make lemon biscuits.

My small oven could only handle one small tray at a time, so I spent the whole night baking the whole dough. I started at 8pm, and finished almost at midnight. I was almost going to fall asleep while waiting for the last few trays of biscuits to be baked.

But it was worth it. I like the lemon taste. I made several shapes - rolled into small balls, rolled into "S" shaped, some were cut with cookie cutter. The small balls looked the least pretty, but they tasted the best. One bite and the lemon taste was there instantly. Those cut with cookie cutters had the faintest lemon taste, it's funny and I wonder why. They are all from the same dough. But I sure will roll them all into balls next time I do this, saves more time!

Check out the recipe in my recipe blog.

(Popeye's) Buttermilk Biscuits

When I first tried Popeye's Chicken years ago, I fell in love immediately with the buttermilk biscuit. I was intrigued by the first bite. It was salty, yet a little sweet, a little undescribable but totally loveable. Paired with maple syrup given by the staff, it was perfect for me! However, it did not help that the only outlet in Singapore was at the airport. I do not live near the airport, so whenever I had to go to the airport, I made sure I buy a few, no matter how full I was. Now, they have an outlet nearer to the city, but they have stopped giving maple syrup (a few years back), and replace it with jam instead. I'm not a fan of jams, so I bring my own maple syrup to the outlet haha!

Yesterday, I decided that I would bake these today. I looked through my recipe file and here is the product of a recipe I found on the net.

When it first came out of the oven, the smell was oooohhhhh ssooooo niiicccceeee! When eaten warm, it was totally irresistable. Dear gave me a score of 8 out of 10! The taste is just what I like, a little salty, a teeny weeny tinge of sweetness, and the undescribable taste from the buttermilk.

The recipe calls for rolling the dough and cutting with a cookie cutter. My dough was quite wet. I'm not sure if it's meant to be, but it was not "roll-able", so I did away with that. I only spooned them onto the baking tray and flattened them slightly to a height of 1/2 inch.

I have packed them into 4 small lunch boxes - for mum, sister, mum-in-law, and myself. I'm sure they will love them as well.

For the recipe, please click here.

My attempt at biscuits.....5.5/10 (dear's score)

Last night, I baked again...yes, not out on a Friday night..baking at home instead. Dear came for dinner and worked on his laptop while I played around in the kitchen for 2 hours.

Yucks what the hell is that? Something called Chocolate Orange Biscuits..a recipe I found in one of my recipe books. Not a success...the biscuits were not all crispy, some were, some not. The icing was too sweet, and as you can see, some can hardly be called hearts.

First time I work with a biscuit dough, so I shall practise more and make it better. First time using a cookie cutter to make the shapes, and I realise it is not that easy to transfer the shapes to the baking tray, hence some of the elongated hearts. Good thing is, I realise how to make the dough stiffer and how I can make it better next time.

The icing flowed when I poured them on, though they set quickly. But because the dough was not rolled out evenly, they just flowed where gravity calls them.

Ever wonder why cookie cutters are called so? Cookies do not need shapes...it is biscuits that come in shapes, so they should be called biscuit cutters instead.

Okie, ciao now. Gotta go for my cupcakes class! Hoooray!!!