For the third season running Bake Off had me making one of my childhood treats at home. Two years ago it was my all-time favourite, an Angel Cake. This confection consists of three layers of delicate sponge, one raspberry flavoured, another lemon and the third vanilla, with a layer of buttercream between each. No childhood special occasion was complete without one of these.
Last year it was a Battenberg. Another multi sponge creation, this time filled with jam and the whole thing encased in marzipan.
This time around it was a batch of raspberry jam and cream shortbread biscuits, or Jammie Dodgers as they’re commonly known in the UK. A melt in the mouth biscuit with tangy jam and sweet cream.
Looking back now I can’t help thinking the attraction to all these bakes may have been the fact you could pull them apart and in doing so make them seem to last longer on the plate. If you were really lucky, or some might say skilled, you were left with pieces of deconstructed cakes or biscuits that still had jam, marzipan or cream attached to every part of them. A feast for hungry boys of every age.
Another link between them is that before Bake Off prompted me to have a go, I’d thought of them only as shop-bought delights, rather than something for home baking. In all cases, I’ve been proved wrong and am happy to have added them to my repertoire.
As you’ve probably gathered it was Biscuit Week on the show this week and jam and cream biscuits were the technical challenge. Before them, the baker started with having to make a batch of filled brandy snaps. These brittle sweet tubes, almost toffee-like in texture, are filled with a cream favoured to your choice. As much as I’ve always enjoyed them, they didn’t feel like a bake I wanted to produce a batch of at home. To me, they somehow feel closer to a dessert than a biscuit.
The show stopper challenge was its normal bonkers self. This week the bakers were asked to produce a 3D interactive toy from their childhood, made of biscuits. All bar one opted for gingerbread as it’s always the strongest biscuit and lends itself to this sort of thing. My favourite was the snooker table with cues, balls and pockets that could be played. If I’d have been there I might have been tempted to have a go at a gingerbread Dalek, or maybe a Thunderbirds rocket.
If you’re tempted to have a go at making the Jammie Dodgers I will warn you, this recipe makes a dozen substantial biscuits. They are far larger than anything you’d buy in a shop.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a biscuit stamp. I don’t, and they’re purely for decorative purposes anyway. Equally, if you don’t have a heart-shaped cutter, use a star shape or whatever you have to hand. Because let’s face it, in the end, the taste is always going to be more important than the look. Just don’t let the Bake Off judges hear you saying that.
David in the kitchen. 