GTBBO Week 2: Biscuits
The Great Taisty Bytes Bake Off
Welcome to #GTBBO—The Great Taisty Bytes Bake Off! 🍰
With the new season of Bake Off gracing our screens, I thought why not join in on the fun and attempt as many of the weekly challenges as I can? It’ll be a great way to push my baking skills in real time, try new recipes and give me the perfect excuse to create some chaos in the kitchen!
For more info and to see how Week 1 went, check out this post:
Hello friends, and welcome back!
Biscuit Week has arrived, and let me start off today’s Substack by tell you - it was a lot bloody harder than I first anticipated! I 100% underestimated how hard it would be - but funnily enough, not how you’d think.
(Unlike Bread Week this week, for which I’m totally girding my loins. 😬)
Week 2: Biscuit Week
Challenge #1: Viennese Biscuits
I had an absolute blast making these and was surprised at how easy the mixture was to make. And that’s where ‘easy’ ended - as the first batch went so, so wrong. The nozzle I bought for the piping was way too small, the bag itself burst open, and I’m pretty sure I pulled a muscle trying to squeeze the mixture out. I carried on nevertheless and ended up with what can only be described as fat fingers rather than the delicate, elegant biscuits I was aiming for.
Said biscuits were still baked and eaten, mind.
For the second batch, I Amazon Prime’d a bag of larger nozzles to use and this time they turned out great! I won’t lie - I’m actually pretty thrilled with them. I went for vanilla biscuits with a dark chocolate and crushed pistachio topping.
They may not look pretty to seasoned bakers. But to me… they’re a work of art.
Side note: As I was so focussed on worrying if the piping was going to work second time round, I did totally forget to chill the mixture before popping them in the oven, which is probably why they’re looking a bit flat—but still a bloody good attempt, even if I do say so myself!
As of writing this, I’ve got all the ingredients out and the butter is coming to room temperature to attempt this week’s technical challenge…
Technical Challenge #2: Mint Chocolate Biscuits
If the Viennese biscuits weren’t daunting enough, the thought of having to make a biscuit base, fondant, and temper chocolate did give me an “OH MY CHRIST” (in a Pam from Gavin and Stacy voice) moment. 😱
And I was right to be worried, because I fell at the final hurdle. The chocolate beat me! But, being proven wrong once again - as I often am in the kitchen - I actually found it so much fun!
The biscuit dough was easy enough to make, and the fondant was much simpler than I anticipated. Who’d of thought that whizzing butter, icing sugar and (cooled) melted chocolate together and popping it in the freezer was literally as simple as that!
I’m not sure where it went wrong with the chocolate - I made sure everything was hitting the correct temperatures. I did use milk chocolate rather than dark (only because I’d run out), so perhaps that could be it?
I recently shared a reel of when Nadiya Hussain won Bake Off—she gave that emotional speech about never doubting herself again. In a sense, and only two weeks in, it’s giving me the same sort of reality check. Maybe I shouldn’t doubt myself so much in the kitchen!
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Biscuit Week and one out of two aint bad! Perhaps having 40 biscuits to work through might distract me from overthinking Bread Week… 🍞😅
If you’re baking along this season, let me know in the comments and I’d love to see how your bakes turn out!
What I’m listening to
On the radio this week I have been loving revisiting Sarah Bareilles - Gravity was and I suppose still is one of my all time favourite songs. I’ve also been putting on 2 shows a day for Hiro pretty much by belting out some show tunes. Pretty sure he might say ‘endured’ rather than ‘enjoyed’…
Creators to follow
Each week I want to give a shoutout to some amazing creators who I’ve been loving lately. This week I’ve been loving:
Gareth - From Keeper’s Cottage
I’ve admired Gareth for quite a while now over on Instagram, which is a total vibe in itself. So I was thrilled to see he had joined Substack, too! He’s journalling his life in the Scottish Highlands, sharing his daily life, adventures, food, his pups and lots of glorious photos (of which I’m living vicariously through)Sheryl - Just really good recipes
And they really are! I love how Sheryl helps me discover from recipes from all over the world. I’ve been gearing myself up to make a her Fetteh Bowl with Spiced Chicken which loves so bloody good.
Well, that’s all from me today my friends. Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my little corner of the world.
As always, feel free to leave a comment or just say hi. I love hearing from you!
Until next time,
Mark
I used to dream of Viennese whirls and their like, and haven’t had one in too long - I shall put that right
I find that plastic piping bags can easily burst so I use those nylon versions. Tasty looking bics there.