Sunday 5 April 2009

Ginger Oat Biscuits


Every year my mum has a huge birthday party (think a guest list of 500...) and I bake the cake. So tomorrow will be a bake-a-thon of sorts, as I'm baking the whole four tier 16 inch extravaganza while mum is out in the day before the party at night. Hopefully it won't take as long as last year, I was exhausted by the time it came to the party and by 4am I was definitely flagging! So I thought I would make some of my favourite Ginger Oats yesterday to keep me going while I did all the calculations for scaling up the cake mix and the filling/icing and while I finished one of my holiday essays this morning.

The Ginger Oats are lovely simple biscuits and take no time to knock together. They use the divine Golden Syrup, as above. I'm not sure about worldwide availability - I know I have to bring it to Switzerland from the UK. It's basically solid sugar and such a beautiful colour - when it's in the tin it's this lovely russet/amber/red gold. It always reminds me of my childhood - scooping the syrup out with a spoon to dollop into a cake or biscuit mix and then getting to lick the spoon. I love it on drop scones (bit like american pancakes) with butter, too. If you couldn't find it I suppose honey could work, or just more sugar - perhaps muscavado rather than more demerara to give a background flavour rather than more crunch. For the oats I had to use porridge oats as we didn't have any Jumbo in the cupboard, but they're lovely with a mix of the two or just Jumbo.

Ginger Oat Biscuits
(adapted from Delia Smith's Book of Cakes)

110g butter
75g demerara sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
110g self raising flour
110g oats
1 heaped tsp ground ginger

Preheat oven to 170C. Heat the butter, sugar and syrup together in a pan till butter is melted. Sift flour into a bowl and add oats and ginger. Mix well. Pour the melted mixture in and mix in well. Roll small balls of the mixture in hands and place onto a greased baking sheet. Squish slightly with your fingers. They don't spread too much but give them a bit of space. Bake for around 10 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

6 comments:

  1. Hi there

    I've just tried baking these last night and they taste awesome. My only question is whether they are supposed to have somewhat chewy centers or it is supposed to be crispy the whole way through?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi!

    I usually try to get them crispy on the outside with a little chewy bit in the middle, but I don't think its really matters either way. I suppose it depends on how much you squish them - the thicker they are, the chewier they'll be. I've overbaked them before and made them crispy all the way through too.

    Thanks for commenting and reading!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi,

    Is it possible to make ginger oat biscuits without butter/oil (i.e. zero oil or butter)?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I made some of these this afternoon.They were delicious!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi! I just baked them, they're really good. Only, I used honey instead of golden syrup and if I make them again I might chose to use a bit less oats, as they tend to crumble. Congratulations on your blog!

    ReplyDelete

If you would like to leave a comment or question, please do - I appreciate every one and will reply as soon as possible.

ShareThis