biscuit disaster - what did I do wrong?

[DottyDot]

Sigh. Tried to make some basic biscuits which I was going to make into jammy dodgers, but the little buggers wouldn't cook (eventually did them for at least twice as long as the recipe said) and then crumbled on sight - no chance of even getting them off the baking sheet in one piece, let alone make them into anything edible!

I was using gluten-free flour, which didn't help - but what could I have done to make them less crumbly?? Used butter, egg yolk, suger and flour - made dough, cut out, in oven for a million years...

My Prue Leith book has a troubleshooting bit at the start of the biscuit section.

Were the biscuits:
tough and dry
greasy
hard
too thick and cakey
?

did you chill the dough before cutting?

Hmm - the biscuits were very, very crumbly! Tasted nice but literally crumbled when I tried to pick them up!

No - I only chilled the dough for about 5 minutes (had 4 hungry boys on a biscuit promise! ) - do you think that would have helped?

Will have to try again sometime but it's v. frustrating when I try to be a Domestic Goddess and fail miersably...

All the cooks seem to say that you should chill them until they are very firm in order to make them cook better (techical, moi?) so that might have been an issue. Sound flour related though to my inexperienced ears.

you need to chill in fridge for an hour normally or freezer for 30 mins

otherwise they crumble and fall apart

........ if biscuits have pissed you off, you could try jam tarts next time if your boys are of the jam persuasion. do the pastry in the food processor and, oh, remember to chill it.

No idea what went wrong, I'm afraid. i am a crap cook.

There is a basic biscuit recipe on MN somewhere. It is absolutely foolproof. You can mess about with the quantities and it still seems impossible to cock up. I will try and find it for you.

I must admit I have never had much luck with gluten free flour ... but my mum does!!!

But then again, maybe she is a better cook than I!!

There is a flour that is very good, but for the life of me I cant remember what its called ... Dove's Flour rings bells. That is the one my mum uses. She says sometimes its whats in the flour that makes all the difference. She gets it online and on prescription as she is ceoliac (sp) so not sure if its readily available

Thanks all - I was using Doves Farm gluten free flour (which makes lovely pancakes!) but will try chilling the dough next time - and the MN recipe would be great - I'll have a look and see if i can find it!