Well. The oven was fixed today, in a manner of speaking. That's to say; the guy did come and repair the broken fan (which we thought was the problem) but the damn thing is still not working properly! My rage is gone though...I've been worn down by the oven and all I feel is tired and saddened by it. The worst part is that I didn't realise that it was still broken until I started cooking.
I made the Earl Grey Tea Biscuit dough, then put it in the freezer to chill; chopped the fruit and mixed the dry ingredients for the cake - ready to bring it all together at the last minute before baking; made white sauce for the lasanges; and made the banana butterscotch muffins. The latter went in the oven first. My first clue that things were not altogether 'right' was when the muffins began browning to a crisp within 3 minutes of going into the oven. The clue was 2 minutes later when the oven switched its useless self off. Deep, weary sigh...
By this point I was committed to the whole baking afternoon so I just had to go ahead and make do. The sad, overly-browned effects can be seen above. Pretty damn irritated by it all really. On the upside, despite their bronzed edges, the Earl Grey Tea cookies are quite delicious! They are essentially a shortbread biscuit but so aromatic and fragrant - lovely! The recipe is below - yours should be considerably paler than mine once they're done.
Earl Grey Biscuits
1 c plain flour
1/4 c icing sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1 tbsp earl grey tea leaves (use teabags - 2 should be enough)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp water
1/2 c butter
Preheat oven to 180degC. Blitz dry ingredients in food processor (I don't have a proper food processor anymore, so I did this in the little mini-processor thing that came with the hand blender. Worked perfectly fine!). Add butter, water and vanilla and pulse until it comes together. Smoosch into a log, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 mins. Slice into thin rounds (about 1/2 cm thick, but by all means thicker if you prefer). Bake until slightly browned on edges (unless your oven is psychotic in which case keep a close eye on them and yank them out before they turn to tiny pieces of charcoal!!). Enjoy with a steaming hot mug of strong tea on a cold winter's day...or for dessert with good vanilla icecream and strong espresso in summer!
Oh Jess, what a nightmare! I have to say though, the sad sea of brown pic still looks mighty appetising! I didn't realise you intended to do that whole list of baked goods in one hit. That is most impressive. Hope you will eventually manage to get damn oven sorted.
ReplyDeleteMe too. I should have called the electrician yesterday but I just didn't have the energy to deal with the oven's evilness.
ReplyDeleteThe biscuits were good. And actually, despite their ovely bronzed tops, the banana butterscotch muffins are really good - like small, sticky, toffeeish banana cakes! Yum :-)
I'm sure we're eating way more than our fair share of charcoal at the moment...