Baking for the Holidays and Shortbreads

 

I was recently sent some really nice things to do some Christmas baking with.



The first article was the Tala Beech Revolving Rolling Pin.  (Identical to above, except mine has pretty pale green handles).

Made from Solid Beech

Excellent for Non Stick Surfaces

Splinter Resistant

100% Pure, From well-managed forests

It really is a lovely rolling pin.  It moved easily with no effort at all and worked wonderfully.  If I had any complaint about it at all, it was that the product label was actually stuck to the rolling pin and I had to soak it to remove it.  I am not in the habit of washing my rolling pins.  I quite simply like to brush them off and rub them with a clean cloth when I am finished.  The label did eventually come off though and I will be able to keep seasoning it as I normally do.  It is really quite a nice rolling pin, and at £5.99 in most locations, very affordable and good quality for money spent.

 

The next article was this lovely set of Tala 4 Snowflake cutters.  All five fitting into a compact tin for storage.  They range in size from 1 1/2 inches in diameter to 3 inches in diameter.



They did a really lovely job of cutting out with really nice clear cuts and were very easy to use.  I was well impressed.  Sometimes cookie cutters with such intricate edges can be a bit difficult to use, with the dough catching into the edges and not wanting to be released.

 

As you can see this was definitely not a problem with these cutters.  Al;so reasonably priced at £6.99.  I was so excited at the lovely snowflake short-bread biscuits  I envisioned on serving up to guests over the holidays.  I thought they would be quite beautiful dusted with icing sugar using the Tala Sugar Shaker.


 Created in their retro style and made from Stainless Steel, this is a lovely Sugar Shaker, also very reasonably priced at £6.99.  I didn't get to use it though . . . because the stupid cookie recipe I decided to try was a real total flop.



It rolled out nice and cut nice and I thought they would be beautiful biscuits.  Alas when they were baking they spread out all over the pan and ended up hard and crisp and very horribly burnt in the time alloted.  I sure hope that the remainder of the recipes in this book are not as horribly out.  This one was a real loser. I was so disappointed not to mention annoyed at all that waste of butter and sugar.  I can only think that the proportion of butter to everything else was way out.

From now on I'll stick to my old reliable whipped short breads for my Christmas biscuits. They always turn out and are so easy to make.  Delicious too.



*Whipped Shortbreads*
Makes about 2 dozen
Printable Recipe

All the yumminess of shortbread cookies without any of the hassle of having to roll them out, etc.

8 ounces of butter (1 cup) room temperature
210g of plain flour (1 1/2 cups)
70g icing sugar (1/2 cup)

 

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line several baking sheets with baking parchment. Set aside.

Place all of the ingredients into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 10 minutes until light and fluffy. Drop by the teaspoon onto the baking sheets. (Leave about 2 inches of space in between each to allow for spreading.) Sprinkle the tops with a varieity or sprinkles or coloured sugars, or chopped green and red cherries.

Bake for about 17 minutes until the bottoms are coloured light brown. Allow to cool on the baking sheets. Store in an airtight container.

Many thanks to Eddingtons and Tala for sending me these lovely new baking tools.  I am going to use them all again before Christmas to bake some Gingerbread biscuits.  I can't wait!  They'll look lovely dusted with sugar I think.