Remember the sheep milk butter? Butter in a jar
It has been used for ghee in curry - that was deemed by my humans to have 'worked'.
It has been used by my humans for sautéing vegetables - that sort of worked. From my point of view it tainted the place with an aroma (of sheep), that I, The Tigger, was possibly more alert to than my humans. Maybe their sense of smell, of lack of it, is a sign of something .....
The last cupful of it has been reserved for a week or two awaiting F getting together the motivation to make ginger biscuits. (Also of no interest to a cat, but it meant the oven was going so I supervised that hoping for roast chicken.)
Mr B has pronounced the biscuits the best yet. We think that means better than the other varieties F makes or has made - she has never made her Grandmother's ginger biscuit recipe for him before.
F said she did something wrong because they refused to spread out in the oven and had to be 'flattened' halfway through baking. (Scrimped on the golden syrup - it is difficult to source in Greece.)
Cooled down, they are about the consistency of hop-scotch stones. That can't be good can it?
They DO NOT however, taste or smell of that weird butter.
Recipe if anyone else wants to try these 'dunkin' gingernuts:
1 cup butter (or butter and lard and a tablespoon of vinegar)
1 cup golden syrup
1 cup sugar
3 large cups of flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
(and a cup of hot tea to dunk them in when they cool down)
Melt the first three ingredients together, sift and mix in the rest. Roll into balls about the size of a walnut and bake at about 160-170 degrees C until golden (and spread out). And if the first tray doesn't look like spreading out squash the rest before you put them in the oven (and try less flour next time).
Now she's going out to the butcher's to buy more weird butter. I don't mind as long as she picks up a whole chicken for roasting while there.
Apparently Sheep milk butter is popular here, I've seen the odd episode on country calendar where people are making it.
ReplyDeleteOne of F' retirement ideas was to come home, get a farm, raise sheep and make butter and cheese. I think the 'get a farm' part of that idea was the flaw in the plan, the weakest link so to speak. She hasn't got a lifetime to pay for it.
DeleteMaybe add honey to golden syrup to make it go further
ReplyDeleteThey look yummy
We've given this some thought (because someone else suggested honey) and reckon it might work with honey if you used dark brown sugar for the sugar ingredient. The golden syrup is a noticeable part of the flavour in the original recipe.
DeleteI made gingernuts a couple of days ago and posted the photo on Instagram. I was going to make another post of it for the blog but may just have a go at yours first. Mine were really zingy from extra ginger. However, I like the look of F's. The colour and the unsmooth tops, just as they should be. Mine were as hard as nails but lacked the look for a start. I wont be using sheeps butter, no way, and shall use runny honey cos I havent any golden syrup, molasses or such stuff.
ReplyDeleteThese were definitely teeth breakers. Much hot tea required to aid consumption. Mr B said there's a hole in the box they were stored in - they seem to have 'fallen out'.
DeleteF says we have some grape syrup and she might try that.
Deletei checked out the link to the butter, and have not heard of it before, of course i have never had goat or sheep milk or cheese made from it.. bob eats the fake butter that says its almost like butter. the cookies look good but they sound like my mothers breakfast biscuits. she could bake any thing and cook anything but when she made biscuits they would break your teeth if not careful... i prefer to buy my food, all of it, even baked goods. signing off as Not A Cook
ReplyDeleteYour mother would have been proud of these then. A whack with a mallet wouldn't hurt these biscuits. BIS CUIT apparently means well cooked in French. The Britsh Navy victuallers used to get double baked biscuit (hard tack) - if they'd used this recipe they'd only have needed to cook 'em once!
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDelete...orrr, pawhaps Mr B meant that was the best yet use of the sheep milk butter? Either way, am always grateful for a new recipe and am wondering about my own variation... coconut 'oil'... Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
Now that would be an interesting experiment. F suspects many of her grandmothers' recipes were based in war time rationing (despite being in NZ and having plenty of all the stuff being rationed in UK).
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