The Great British Bake Off - episode 4 - Biscuits

I had been  looking forward to this episode as I love biscuits.  There is nothing that can't be sorted by a cup of tea and  homemade biscuits or cake.  Sometimes you need both.

I really wanted to make Mary-Anne's signature bake of melting moments but they weren't a featured recipe on the website so it was a choice between Rob's Chocolate and  ginger oat biscuits or Holly's Custard Melts because I wasn't going to make the required element of Mary Berry's Brandy Snaps.  Not just because they looked quite fiddly to do but mainly because they were to be a gift to take to lunch with the A's the next day and I don't think MG would have liked them. 

I actually really wanted to make the macaroons.  They were so pretty.  All the contestants had to make them and were given five hours in which to do it but I didn't have that amount of time, let alone the contingency time I would probably have needed in case it all went pear shaped.  But one day I will make macaroons, when I have a weekend to spare.

So I decided to make Rob's Chocolate and  ginger oat biscuits.   Rob endeared himself to an anwful lot of viewers when, in the first show, he dropped his two tier chocolate cake on the floor just as he was getting it ready for showing and was very upset. A million women, including me, went aaah and wanted to hug him.  It also helps that he is young, has floppy, dark, wavy hair, melting green eyes and dimples in his cheeks when he smiles. He seems to be gathering quite a following on the radio and is regularly discussed by the likes of Chris Evans and Ken Bruce.  Unfortunately Mr Hollywood seems to be immune to Rob's charms.   Rob, although he obviously loves baking, is a little on the laid back side, which Mr Hollywood is not, and he has timing issues, a failing of which Mr Hollywood disapproves.  I sadly think Rob's days might be numbered.

Anyway, the recipe looked quite straightforward and all I had to buy was the stem ginger, which was not at all as easy as I thought it would be.  However, ginger purchased I made the biscuits.

Here are Rob's biscuits

the required quantity of twelve

all the same shape and size (and the pinkness that is Mary Berry)



checking to see if they had the right constituants of crispness without and chewyness within - they did.  Although Paul Hollywood said there was too much ginger.  Rob said there wasn't.  



And here are my biscuits

Rob made twelve, the recipe said it made twelve, I made eighteen. Here are the remaining fifteen, two having been dropped and one eaten. If I had made twelve out of the mixture I had, they would have been the size of small dinner plates



they look the same size as Rob's biscuits - well to me they do

not only did I make six more than the recipe said but they were an awful lot thicker as well



I don't know how it would have happened as I followed the recipe very very carefully but there you go.

They tasted nice and they looked nicer than the photographs allow and The A's were very pleased with them.  They also didn't think there was too much ginger in them.

Next week is pies.  I like pies.