Ginger Nuts – to dunk or not to dunk, that is the question ...

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Dunk (verb) to dip (bread or other food) into a drink or soup before eating it.

"I dunked a biscuit into the cup of scalding tea"

“Blasphemous” talk about HRH - or any British royal for that matter; mobile phone use; slouching; or resting your elbows on the table are all behaviours likely to get you into trouble in a controversial Brighton tearooms. Conversation shouldn’t be more than “two tones above the chink of a teacup” – somewhat hard to measure as teacup-chinking and teaspoon-clinking are also frowned upon. Under NO circumstances drink from the saucer- you could be sent to the Tower.

The Tea Cosy has also prohibited dunking. Engaging in the “unsavoury habit ... will result in you being asked to leave”.

Unsavoury habit? Really? Dunking is an art that has been practiced for aeons. Would The Tea Cosy have evicted Proust for executing one of the most famous literary dunks in history—a madeleine dipped in tea?

We learn to dunk early. For centuries, children have known the pleasures of dunking toast soldiers into the molten centre of a soft-boiled egg. With the arrival of tea, coffee and hot chocolate, dunking has become much more skilled.

According to research from the University of Bristol, dunking a biscuit releases up to ten times more flavour than a dry biscuit. A successful dunk is when the biscuit absorbs enough liquid to release all that extra flavour but not so much that the sugar melts and the structural integrity of the biscuit fails, leaving biscuit-y sludge at the bottom of your cup.

Factors that have to be taken into account are:

Temperature—the hotter the liquid, the faster the sugar melts.

Angle—this is more important with chocolate biscuits and a very shallow angle, chocolate-side-up, is advised as the chocolate provides support. For all others, a 90° angle was found to be better.

Length of time—Jammie Dodgers and Rich Tea have considerable staying power—able to withstand a 20-second dunk. Digestives, Hobnobs and Ginger Nuts will start to dissolve after just 2.92 seconds.

I don’t mind the Ginger Nut’s lack of staying power. There is an alchemy in the combination of strong, hot tea (particularly Assam) and the spicy heat released by the biscuit that makes this combination greater than the sum of its parts.

For about 30 biscuits (cookies), you will need...

150g caster sugar (or dark brown sugar)

125g butter

50g black treacle

50g golden syrup

1 small egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

10g mixed peel (or candied orange peel) very finely chopped (optional)

10g preserved ginger in syrup, very finely chopped (optional)

325g plain flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 allspice berries, crushed to a fine powder (or ¼ teaspoon of ground allspice)
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt 

Extra caster sugar for rolling the cookie dough in before baking

Method 

Place the sugar, butter, treacle, and golden syrup in a bowl and beat until paler in colour and lighter in texture. 

Continue beating while you add the egg and vanilla extract (along with the mixed peel and preserved ginger if using). Beat until combined. 

Mix together the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt and add to the mixture in the bowl, beating all the while. 

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C and line 2 or 3 baking sheets (depending on how big your oven is) with non-stick baking parchment.  

Rinse your hands with cold water and shake off any excess moisture. This will help stop the dough sticking too much. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of dough and form them into balls. Dip the balls in the extra sugar (this gives them a lovely sparkle) before placing on the baking sheets, at least 5cm apart to give them room to spread out. There's no need to flatten them - the heat will do all the work.

No need to flatten them out - the heat will do all the work

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 17 minutes. At 15 minutes they are cooked but a little chewy. I always remove one tray of the cookies at this point because I like this chewiness, but they are ginger nuts which are supposed to be crunchy so I let the rest cook to full crunchiness.

Shush! Don't tell anyone or we'll be thrown out.

To dunk or not to dunk - that is a question of personal taste. But if you don’t, you won’t know what you’re missing.

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Pine Nut and Almond Macaroons – and not a pink poodle in sight!

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When I think of macaroons, the first image that comes to mind is of the currently fashionable Parisian version available in a variety of pastel shades and exotic flavours. For me they are the confectionery equivalent of the pampered pink poodles you find trotting along the Promenade de la Croisette in Cannes, looking over-primped and more than a little absurd.

Pine nut and almond macaroons - one is never enough!  

Then a very fond memory swoops in, of a time I spent in Almería in Southern Spain, and the gorgeously simple macaroons I found at Almería’s favourite pastry shop.

If you get a chance to visit Almería, seize it! It is a little jewel of a town, full of romance and the history of millennia (and a large helping of petty thievery – so keep a weather-eye open). It is right on the coast so you can swim away the extra calories you are bound to take on board while you are there - Almería has some wonderful places to eat.

As the heat begins to fade from the day, the paseo begins. Crowds emerge and begin a stately promenade around the town. It is a chance to see and be seen. If you are a people-watcher, you could hardly get a better ringside seat than the pavement tables outside La Dulce Alianze, the 19-Century pastelería on Paseo de Almería. It is like a more refined and much smaller Bewleys of Grafton Street. You will be lured in by the stunning window display. An Aladdin’s cave of chocolates and pastries will call to you as you make your way to the stylish café area at the back. Resign yourself to the fact that you will emerge with at least a half-dozen prettily-wrapped sweetmeats (maybe these macaroons) to eat later.

Meanwhile, here’s something to whet your appetite in advance of your visit. These little beauties make a light, slightly chewy treat during the festive season, and not a pink poodle in sight!

For approximately 20 macaroons you will need...

 ...to pre-heat the oven to 160°C



Scatter with pine nuts and
press lightly into the batter  

 2 egg whites

¼ teaspoon table salt

150g caster sugar

130g ground almonds

20g plain flour

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Pine nuts and flaked almonds to decorate

Icing sugar to finish

You will also need sheets of rice paper or non-stick baking parchment

Method

1       In a large mixing bowl (or food mixer) whisk the egg whites with the salt until the whisk leaves soft peaks in the mixture when you lift it out.

2       Mix in the caster sugar, ground almonds, plain flour and vanilla extract until combined.

3       Cover two baking sheets with ricepaper or non-stick baking parchment onto which you place teaspoonsfuls of the mixture about 5cm apart, flattening them slightly. You should get about 20 macaroons from this mixture.

4       Sprinkle 10 with pine nuts and 10 with flaked almonds, pressing the nuts lightly into the batter so that they stick.

5       Place in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes or until evenly golden.

6       Transfer the macaroons – still on their backing paper – to a wire rack to cool. When cold, peel away the rice paper if that’s what you used (it doesn’t matter if some sticks – it’s perfectly edible) or carefully remove the non-stick parchment paper*.

7       Dust with icing sugar.

These are wonderfully Christmassy and just the thing to accompany a cup of real hot chocolate.

Tip: *If your 'non-stick' baking parchment sticks, don’t panic! Any paper that adheres is easily scraped away with a knife.

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Double Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies – so much nicer than ‘Porridge a la Nutella’

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Double choc means one is never enough

Throughout her ‘terrible twos’ (and threes) my littlest niece has done battle at the dinner table to defend her right to reject among many other items: carrots (too orange), peas (too green), onions (just yucky). I wondered what on earth to feed her on a recent sleep over at my house – Porridge a la Nutella being the fall-back position, and one of her favourite meals.

Before dinner, I gave her the very important role of Blackberry-Picking Bucket Holder, a duty she carried out with due diligence for about an hour before declaring herself “absolutely exhausted and starving”. I tentatively fed her spaghetti and meatballs – which she promptly buried under an inch of parmesan, purely for the novelty of sprinkling spoonfuls of the cheese ‘snow’ and watching it fall and melt into the tomato sauce. I waited for the “I-don’t-like-this” refrain, but she tucked in, devoured her meal, then licked the plate clean. A break-through? I don’t think so - she rejected the fresh honey apple scones and homemade bramble jelly I made for breakfast in favour of her porridge/Nutella combo.

Still, since then she makes a point of telling me how much she enjoyed the spaghetti and meatballs, and asks when can she come stay at my “restaurant” again. Cute!

Her Nutella addiction is the inspiration behind these gorgeous chewy chocolate-y cookies – so much nicer than ‘Porridge a la Nutella’.



Such simple ingredients just waiting ...



For 18 chewy cookies you will need: 

... to pre-heat the oven to 160°C

Cookie dough



50g softened butter

110g (4oz) sugar

50g (2oz) Nutella

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

175g (6oz) plain flour

50g (2oz) cocoa powder, sifted

¼ teaspoon baking soda



Secret centre

50g (2oz) icing sugar, sieved

50g (2oz) Nutella

Chocolate topping

50g dark/milk chocolate, melted

50g white chocolate, melted

1    Make the cookie dough: In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and Nutella until the mixture comes together in a smooth paste. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, mixing until combined. Combine together the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda and add to the butter mixture. Mix together to form a smooth dough. Take spoonfuls of the mixture and quickly roll between the palms of your hands to shape into 18 ping-pong-sized balls. Leave to one side covered with cling-film.

2    Make the secret centres: put the Nutella into a medium mixing bowl and add the icing sugar bit by bit, mixing it into the Nutella with a wooden spoon. When combined, divide the Nutella mixture into 18 small balls, one for each cookie dough ball.

3    With your thumb, make a dip in the centre of each cookie dough ball and place a Nutella ball into each one. Close the chocolate dough over to conceal the Nutella centre and reshape the cookie into a ball.

4    Divide the dough balls between two baking sheet, leaving a gap of about 4cm between cookies so that they have room to expand. Flatten each cookie slightly – the base of a water glass is perfect - before putting into the pre-heated oven for 8-10 minutes or until the surface begins to pull apart slightly. When cooked, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

5    When cooled, drizzle with melted dark or milk chocolate and melted white chocolate.



... to become magical cookies



Variation



Instead of making the Nutella centre, push a square of soft fudge into the centre of the chocolate cookie dough and seal it well.



Tip

To make an easy chocolate piping bag, pop the chocolate in a small freezer bag and dangle it in hot water. When the chocolate has melted, dry the bag and snip off a tiny corner to allow the chocolate to be squeezed out in a thin drizzle.

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