Bake off week two and it’s time for biscuits. Biscuits are never my favourite bake, not to say that I don’t enjoy them, just that they are something that I don’t bake very often.
This weeks challenges were chocolate biscuits bars for the signature bake, fig rolls for the technical and a 3D biscuit structure for the show stopper. Unless you are actively in a competition I can’t see the point of a biscuit structure, so the choice to be made for my bake was chocolate or figs.
Ordinarily chocolate would have won hands down. I know it’s not good for me and I’m sure I eat to much, but put chocolate in or on a bake and I’m yours. In the end the reason that I didn’t go this route was that fig rolls presented an unusual bake, in that I wasn’t sure if I actually liked them. I’m so used to baking things that are as much for me as for anyone else that the challenge of baking something that wasn’t necessarily to my taste was too good to resist.
Fig rolls are something that I’d only ever had before as a shop bought biscuit. A buttery, slightly crumbly outer encasing the fig paste centre. I remember them from childhood as the sort of biscuit that your grandparents were likely to have, the sort that you would always leave if there were any others to choose from.
Fig rolls are actually slightly contentious as some people claim they are a cake rather than a biscuit. The Wikipedia page for fig rolls ( yes there really is one ) seems to go with this view and refers to them in the opening line as a cake. In this country though you’ll always find them in the biscuit aisle so I’ll stick with that.
It was a fairly limited list of ingredients for this week and other than needing to get some dried figs everything else was already in the pantry.
The figs meant a trip to the wonderful dried fruit and spice stall on our local market and also a chance to share this video with you. Gareth’s stall is on virtually every shopping expedition that I make into Norwich and you can safely say that if Gareth hasn’t got it no one has.
http://www.norwich-market.org.uk/stalls/YouTube/No42_butcher.shtm
The bake itself turned out to be much easier than last weeks Angel Cake. Far fewer stages and definitely much less washing up to deal with afterwards. The only potential problem I found was in the creating of the fig paste for the filling. The recipe talks about creating a thick paste that can be rolled into a sausage. This is laid on the dough which is then rolled around the paste to create the biscuits. My paste wouldn’t thicken and in the end I just had to spoon it onto the dough. My concern was that with a soft paste the rolls might collapse in the oven. Thankfully this didn’t happen and the finished items kept their shape.
If the success of the bake was a pleasant surprise the taste of the bake was an even bigger one. I don’t know if the shop bought rolls contain stem ginger and cinnamon but the addition of these spices gives the home made version a very different flavour. A rich spiciness that is offset by the buttery biscuit around it. After all these years I’ve become a fig roll fan.
Lessons learned from Bake Off week two
- Just because you don’t think that something is to your taste, don’t be afraid to bake it. You might be pleasantly surprised.
- Even if something doesn’t look to be working (the fig paste in this case) don’t panic.
If anyone fancies having a go the link to the recipe I used is below. For any American readers I think that you know Fig Rolls as Fig Newtons
Next time it’s bread week.
David in the kitchen. 
I haven’t had a chance yet to watch the biscuit episode but the week is young. I enjoyed your post, especially the link to the market and the herb and spice stall. The closest we come (in CA anyway) to your market is the Farmer’s Market. These are open markets that pop up on a regular basis once or twice a week in many communities . Local farmers sell produce but there are also flower venders, baked goods, herbs, and other wares, depending on the community. Often there are musicians playing and people purchase sandwiches or other ready made meals to enjoy while listening to music and watching the people. Some communities limit this to spring and summer but other places (like my town) run the market all year long.
And, yes, from your description and photo, your fig rolls are our fig newtons. You described them so well! The kind of thing that the grandparents served but that you would choose only as a last resort. I am curious about the chocolate biscuit bars – they sound yummy. Do they ever give recipes for the different entries? I wanted to see cake recipes from last week. Also. cookie structures? Hmmmmm- we’ll see.
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I’ve just checked the bake off web site and it does look as if they put up recipes for all of the rounds on there. Hopefully this link will work https://thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk . We do have Farmers Markets in the UK that sound similar to yours but we are lucky in Norwich as ours is an all year round fixed one, right in the heart of the city. In recent years it has had quite a revival. When I last checked there were stalls selling Portuguese, Sicilian, Chilean , Italian and Japanese food , there may well be others that have missed as well. There are also lots of very useful everyday things on there as well.
The chocolate biscuit bars did look good and i may well be tempted at some point. They were all using soft silicone moulds to bake them in though so I would have to invest in one of those first.
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