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250g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
65g soft butter
65g light brown demarara sugar
2 tablespoons of molasses
1/2 free-range organic egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
optional: icing sugar
We found a very nice recipe for Celtic Knots on YouTube that also fitted nicely in our Knight and Castle Month! The recipe was not difficult, it only takes two days to rest in the refrigerator, but we never mind. The mini monsters saw the biscuits already, in their imagination. They were immediately enthusiastic! It started off perfectly, the dough was quickly made, it looked very good and was neatly stored in the refrigerator overnight.
The setback came the next day, when making the knots. Kneading and rolling went fine, rolling a snake also went well but: if you bent the dough, it broke and without bending you can't make knots. After a vexing half an hour we gave up :(( The mini-monsters were less disappointed, they already had another good idea! Why not round biscuits with a cross because of the crusades and a sword because of the knights. Brilliant, let's do it!!!
PS We do add the template for the Celtic Knots, it is such a beautiful biscuit (if it works out!). Maybe you want to try and if so, let us know how your biscuits turned out, we are eager to know!
Beat the butter and add the sugar.
Then beat in the vanilla and the molasses.
Add the egg then beat the mixture for another minuut.
Sieve flour, salt and baking soda into a big bowl.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in the mixer.
Mix it quickly until combined and until big crumbs of dough form.
Knead it by hand until smooth which it will be very soon.
Shape the dough into a ball.
Wrap the dough in cling film.
Store it in the fridge overnight.
Day 2
You can also skip the following debacle and continue reading when we start with the round biscuits! (photo 11 up to and including 16)
Cut of half the dough.
Knead a piece of dough.
Roll out the dough very gently.
Rol a snake, as thin as possible.
The longer we cautiously try to fix it, the more the dough starts to break into short pieces, it is hopeless. Our mini-knights decided it was time to execute plan B
Preheat the oven to 175°C then roll out the dough again
Cut out circles.
Cut off strips of dough.
Cut the strips into pieces.
Place waxed paper on the baking tray.
Stick the strips of dough together with honey, in cross or sword form, then stick them on the circles.
Place 10 biscuits on the baking tray.
Bake the biscuits for 10 - 12 minutes.
Allow the biscuits to cool on a wire rack.
While the first batch of biscuits are baked and cooling the mini-knights take the other half of the dough and make more biscuits.
The biscuits with or without icing sugar dissappear in front of our eyes!