Welsh Fruit Biscuits
Louise created this dish for Great British Bake Off ™ Series 7. Her sheep-shaped biscuits carried the flavour of bara brith — dried fruit soaked in tea, warm mixed spice and bright citrus — under neatly piped royal-icing fleeces that Paul Hollywood singled out for praise. This Fix-It keeps that praised icing and flavour intact while correcting the one fault the judges named: the original biscuits read soft and scone-like, so here the fruit is drained hard, the raising agent dropped and the bake taken full, restoring a short, crisp snap.
- Time: 100 min
Source: Relaxed Recipes
Ingredients
- FOR THE TEA-SOAKED FRUIT
- Strong hot black tea — 1/2 cup , brewed strong
- Mixed dried fruit — 1 cup , finely chopped
- Orange liqueur — 1 tsp
- FOR THE BISCUIT DOUGH
- Cold unsalted butter, cubed — 1/2 cup
- Plain flour — 1 3/4 cups
- Caster sugar — 1/2 cup
- Light brown sugar — 2 tbsp
- Mixed spice — 1 tsp
- Ground cinnamon — 1/2 tsp
- Freshly grated nutmeg — 1/4 tsp
- Orange zest, finely grated — 1 tsp
- Lemon zest, finely grated — 1 tsp
- Salt — 1/4 tsp
- Large egg yolk — 1
- Vanilla extract — 1/2 tsp
- FOR THE ROYAL ICING
- Icing sugar — 2 cups , sifted
- Egg white — 1 large
- Lemon juice — 1/2 tsp
- Black food-colouring gel — as needed
- EQUIPMENT
- Baking sheets lined with parchment
- Rolling pin
- Sheep-shaped cookie cutter
- Fine sieve and kitchen paper for draining the fruit
- Mixing bowls
- Wire cooling rack
- Piping bags and fine nozzles
- Small bowls for colouring icing