biscuit recipe

[jinna]

Has anyone got a simple biscuit recipe that i can do with my son (4 years old) - he is a keen cook but doesn't eat cakes!!! He perfers biscuits - thanks in advance

These are for cheese straw type biscuits which are good if you are trying to avoid sugar:

8oz SR flour
3oz butter or marge
4oz mature cheddar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
tsp mustard/paprika/garlic salt (optional)

Mix all ingredients together (food processor makes it easier), chill for 30 mins, roll out into shapes, use cutters or make straws. Bake at medium temperature - about 15 mins, keep an eye on them, I burned a load yesterday! (Becuase I was addicted to Mumsnet as usual!).

Chocolate chip cookies are really good too - let me know if you haven't got a recipe for them, a few more ingredients than the cheesy ones though.

Does your DS like scones? They are fun to make, plain, sultana or cheese (& easy!).

yes - there's one in delia. i'll look it up shortly and get back...

thanks lindy for the cheese straw recipe but he wants to make sweet biscuits - have you any more - oh and by the way he doesn't like chocolate either!!! but his mum does - so the more for me

here's the shortbread biscuit one from Delia (we use cookie cutters and make nice shapes - my 3 year olds love it and it's really simple - even we can't go wrong)

4oz butter (room temp)
2oz caster sugar
6oz plain flour sifted

pre-heat oven 150C
soften butter, beat in sugar and then sifted flour. use hands to form paste. roll/ press to about 1/8 inch thickness. use cutters to make shapes. put onto lightly greased baking sheet for 30 mins.

thanks robbie - we are going to start making them straight away - i'll tell you how they turn out

the biscuits turned out great - I can't stop eating them myself so we are going to the park so i can burn off some calories

Oh god, I think even I could bake this so will try it too tomorrow. Am hopeless with measurements, what does 1/8 of an inch look like, ie I would guess it was about the length of your little nail, the pink bit, not including your white, does this sound about right? I'm sorry for the hopeless way I measure!!!

Hi Janus - not sure about nails but think of a digestive and you won't go too far wrong!

Well, I think I must be the first person to have messed this up!!! I went thin but they seemed to be overcooked, quite a dark colour when they came out. I think if I did it for between 20-25 mins they will probably be better. They are still edible but just have a faint taste of being 'overdone'! I'm still managing to eat quite a few and my daughter has had about 3 so I wouldn't call it a failure!!!!!

What about Rice Krispie cakes? Anyone know the proportions of things that are meant to go into these? I'd imagine it's golden syrup and butter melted plus the krispies???

I've tried a few times and whilst they were delicious, DH accurately described them as having the consistency of warm tarmac!!!

Craftycat, this is Nigella's recipe for Cornflake Crispies, I have used this recipe for Rice Crispie Cakes and felt it didn't have enough chocolate mixture over them, either we are greedy or the recipe needs some tinkering with, it's possibly OK with cornflakes (haven't tried cornflakes yet):-

100g milk chocolate
25g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon golden syrup
50g cornflakes
28 petit-four cases

Melt the chocolate and butter and add the golden syrup. Coat the cornflakes well with the chocolate mixture - the easiest way is just to fold them into the semi-liquid mix - and fill the petit-four cases. Put the paper cases on baking sheets and leave them to set in the fridge.

Makes 28

I just used ordinary cake cases for these and got about 12.

I believe melting Mars bars works well but don't know the quantities.

I do rice crispies/cornflakes with multiplies of 1 tablespoon margarine/butter, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon golden syrup and 1 tablespoon coca powder (a rounded tablespoon is an onze) and add small amounts of crispsies so that they all get coated. You can also add things like sultanas and cherries. If you want golden crispies leave out the coca. If you're worried about the warmt tarmac efect - pop them in the fridge for a bit.

Here's my two faves- so easy Magic Chocolate Biscuits and Vanilla biscuits...

Vanilla Biscuits (about 30)
30g butter, softened
third cup castor sugar
1 tspn vanilla essence
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
qrtr tspn baking pwdr
qrtr cup vanilla yoghurt
glace cherries quartered for decorating
Beat butter and sugar until combined, add vanilla essence and egg, mix. Sift together flour and baking pwdr. Stir yoghurt and flour alternately into creamed mixture. Place tspns of mixture onto greased tray. Little hands can put the cherry on top! Bake in moderate oven 15 mins or until golden. Cool on the tray, then on rack.

Magic Chocolate Biscuits (about 16)
60g butter
third cup brown sugar
half cup plain flour
3 tspns cocoa
Combine butter and sugar. Sift together flour and cocoa. Mix into butter mixture. Roll tblspns of mix into balls (the best ever fun for toddlers!) Place 8 balls onto microwave turnatable and cook on med-high for 2 mins. Be careful because they can burn from the inside if you let them go too long! Cool slightly on turntable before removing, then to rack. YUM!

What about gingerbread men? (Or do I say gingerbread people now lol?!)

mollipops - would love to have a go at your yum-looking recipes, but I haven't a clue with cups! Any idea how it would convert to ounces or grams?

elwar - I was going to post the same thing! The magic chocolate biscuits sound yummy - not sure if ds will get to eat any!

For measurements such as cups etc, take a look at www.recipes-now.com/tips/weight.shtml.

Thanks Azzie. While on that site , I also found this which made me smile! Has someone been looking in my kitchen???

Food Spoilage Guide

EGGS
When something starts pecking its way out of the shell, the egg is probably past its prime.

DAIRY PRODUCTS
Milk is spoiled when it starts to look like yogurt. Yogurt is spoiled when it starts to look like cottage cheese. Cottage cheese is spoiled when it starts to look like regular cheese. Regular cheese is nothing but spoiled milk anyway and can't get any more spoiled than it is already. Cheddar cheese is spoiled when you think it is blue cheese but you realize you've never purchased that kind.

BREAD
Sesame seeds and Poppy seeds are the only officially acceptable "spots" that should be seen on the surface of any loaf of bread. Fuzzy and hairy looking white or green growth areas are a good indication that your bread has turned into a pharmaceutical laboratory experiment.

FLOUR
Flour is spoiled when it wiggles.

CANNED GOODS
Any canned goods that have become the size or shape of a softball should be disposed of. Carefully.

CARROTS
A carrot that you can tie a clove hitch in is not fresh.

RAISINS
Raisins should not be harder than your teeth.

POTATOES
Fresh potatoes do not have roots, branches, or dense, leafy undergrowth.

CHIP DIP
If you can take it out of its container and bounce it on the floor, it has gone bad.

UNMARKED ITEMS
You know it is well beyond prime when you're tempted to discard the Tupperware along with the food. Generally speaking, Tupperware containers should not burp when you open them.

LOL Elwar, that's hillarious!

If anyone is looking for easy biscuit recipes to make with the kids I have just bought a book from Marks & Spencers called Cookies simple and delicious easy-to-make recipes. It was only £3 and most of the cookies look really straight forward. Unfortunately I haven't got as far as trying any of them myself yet so cannot recommend a particular recipe from the book but it is worth a look next time you are in M&S.

Thanks Azzie.
sis

Hey Elwar (I think you should change your name to MrsMoo btw! ) love the spoiled food thing!

Sorry about the cups bit - forgot! 1 cup = 250ml which is 8oz. Quarter of a cup is about 3 tblspns. HTH!