Dan Lepard’s salted oat crackers
The texture of these lovely crackers is like a very brittle and sturdy potato crisp. They’re less filling than an oatcake and rather good with a plate of cheese, not least because they can handle a slice of the hard types without crumbling to bits.
Makes about 24
plain flour 300g, plus a little extra for rolling
caster sugar 1 tsp
baking powder ½ tsp
fine salt ¾ tsp
unsalted butter 25g, softened
rolled oats 100g
milk or cold water 175ml (milk makes them a little more tender, water a little crisper)
sea salt flakes for sprinkling
Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and rub in the butter. Toss in the oats and milk (or water), and mix to a soft dough. Cover the dough in the bowl, and set aside for half an hour.
Heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Liberally flour a worktop and roll out the dough very, very thinly, using extra flour to stop it sticking. Cut the dough into 10cm discs using a pastry cutter, or into squares with a sharp knife.
Lay the discs (or squares) on an oven tray lined with nonstick baking paper. Brush the top of each disc very lightly with a little water then sprinkle a few salt flakes over each. Bake for about 12-14 minutes, until barely golden at the edges, but still slightly pale.
Originally published in the Guardian. Dan Lepard is the author of Short and Sweet (Fourth Estate, £25)
Jordan Bourke and Rejina Pyo’s yakgwa – deep-fried honey cookies
These are one of the most traditional Korean sweet treats. If you have tried the real thing in Korea, bear in mind that homemade yakgwa is crispier on the outside than the shop-bought versions. You will need a liquid or jam thermometer for this recipe.
Makes 28-30 cookies
For the dough
plain or white spelt flour 200g, plus extra for dusting
ground cinnamon 1 tsp
ground ginger ½ tsp
fresh ginger 10g, peeled and very finely grated
sea salt ¼ tsp
roasted sesame seed oil 1 tbsp
honey 65g
soju 3 tbsp, or sake, vodka or water
sunflower oil 1 litre, for frying
pine nuts 2 tbsp, finely chopped
black sesame seeds 2 tsp
For the syrup
honey 350g
fresh ginger 5cm piece, sliced
ground cinnamon 1 tsp
First make the dough. In a large mixing bowl, sift the flour and mix in the cinnamon, gingers and salt. Stir in the sesame seed oil, honey and soju. It will appear a little dry and flaky at first, but continue to bring it together into a ball using your hands. Knead it gently for 30 seconds, it will still appear a little rough, but this is fine. Wrap it tightly in clingfilm and set aside.
Meanwhile, place all the syrup ingredients along with 300ml water into a saucepan and bring to the boil (with the lid off), reduce the heat a little and simmer for 8 minutes until it has reduced by about 100ml. Take off the heat, strain into a bowl and leave to cool.
Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface to 5mm in thickness. This may seem rather thin but it is important for the consistency. Use a 4cm cookie cutter to cut out the dough, or cut the dough into small 4cm squares and diamond shapes of even size.
Using a toothpick, pierce a hole in the centre of each cookie to allow them to cook evenly. Pour the sunflower oil into a medium-size saucepan and set over a medium-high heat. When the temperature reaches 100C, very carefully add the cookies. Fry for 10 minutes, making sure the temperature stays between 95C-105C, then increase the heat until the temperature rises to between 150C-160C, then reduce the heat to maintain the temperature. Fry the cookies for a further 5-6 minutes, until they are a deep golden brown.
Remove the cookies, individually, from the hot oil with tongs and put them straight into the cooled honey syrup. Set aside to infuse for 2 hours then remove. (Keep the syrup to serve on other desserts.)
To serve, arrange the cookies on a plate, with the chopped pine nuts and sesame seeds scattered over. These cookies will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week.
From Our Korean Kitchen by Jordan Bourke & Rejina Pyo (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £25)
Nigella Lawson’s sweet and salty peanut biscuits
If greed alone were the spur and measure, these would be my favourite biscuits. There’s something about the contrast between salt and sweet and their crumbly lightness that makes them instantly addictive. They make a seductive partnership with vanilla ice cream: you can do this the elegant grown-up way with bowls of ice cream and a plate of the biscuits; or, my weakness, made up into sandwiches, the nubbly discs clasped round the soft, cold cream.
Two requests: don’t use jumbo peanuts and don’t use all butter. You need that Trex: quite apart from its trailer-trash charm, it’s what makes them light.
Makes about 30
light muscovado sugar 75g, plus more for dipping later
unsalted butter 100g
vegetable shortening such as Trex 50g
egg 1 large
vanilla extract 1 tsp
self-raising flour 175g
salted peanuts 125g
baking sheets 2, lined
Preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, butter, shortening, egg and vanilla. Just beat it together, no ceremony, to combine well. You may find this easiest to do with an electric mixer. Stir in the flour and then the peanuts – and that’s your dough done. Now, drop the dough in rounded teaspoons about 5cm apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
Oil the bottom of a glass, or brush with melted butter, and dip it into some more light muscovado sugar and then press gently on the biscuits to flatten them.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, by which time they should be cooked through (though remember that biscuits always continue to cook for a while out of the oven), then remove to a wire rack to cool.
From How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus, £26)
Anissa Helou’s gazelle’s horns
I love these almond-filled cookies. They are baked until just set but not coloured so that they remain delicate, breaking as soon as you bite them and then melting in your mouth. I am unable to have a tray of these in front of me without making them disappear with alarming speed.
Makes 40 cookies
For the almond filling
blanched almonds 500g
caster sugar 150g
orange blossom water 60ml
unsalted butter 2 tbsp, at room temperature
mastic 6-8 small grains, crushed in a small mortar with a pestle to yield ½ tsp powdered mastic
For the pastry
unbleached plain flour 225g
unsalted butter 2 tbsp, melted, plus more for rolling out the pastry
water 100ml
For the filling, put the almonds in a medium heatproof bowl. Pour in enough boiling water to cover and soak for 30 minutes. Drain the almonds and dry them well on a clean kitchen towel.
In a food processor, working in batches if necessary, process the almonds and caster sugar to a very fine paste, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the orange blossom water, butter and mastic; mix with your hands until you have a hom*ogeneous paste. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside.
To make the pastry, put the flour in a large, shallow mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the melted butter and slowly add the water (some cooks use orange blossom water, but that makes for very fragrant pastries) as you gradually stir the butter into the flour with your hand or a spatula. Knead the mixture in the bowl for 15 minutes, or until a smooth, malleable dough forms.
Divide the filling into 40 pieces, rolling each piece between the palms of your hands into a 5cm ball. Shape each ball into a cylinder about 10cm long, with tapering ends. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Smear your pastry board or work surface, rolling pin and hands with melted butter. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a rectangle measuring about 10cm x 20cm. Roll out one half, turning it over once or twice, into a very thin strip about 12.5cm wide and about 50cm long. Carefully stretch the dough with your hands to thin it out a little more and lengthen it to about 60cm.
With the dough positioned perpendicular to the counter’s edge, place a piece of filling along a short end, about 2.5cm away from the edge. Fold the 2.5cm edge tightly over the filling and pinch the filling, bending it at the same time to form a crescent with a thin triangular body and pointed ends; it should be a little wider than the initial cylinder of filling and flat on the bottom. Press the edges of the dough together and cut using a fluted pastry wheel, following the shape of the crescent and keeping very close to the edge of the filling. The crescent should measure about 10cm wide by 3cm high. Prick it with a toothpick in several places on both sides and set on a prepared baking sheet. Form more cornes de gazelle in the same way using the rolled-out dough; you should have enough to make 20 crescents. Space them about 2.5cm apart on the baking sheet.
Bake until barely coloured, 15-20 minutes. Let the pastries cool a little, and then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. While the first batch is baking, begin forming the second lot, and bake and cool them in the same way. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
From Sweet Middle East by Anissa Helou (Chronicle Books, £15.99)
Justin Gellatly’s butter fingers
These are really rich biscuits that are great for elevenses, or as petit* fours to serve with coffee.
Makes about 40
plain flour 220g
fine sea salt a pinch
cornflour 70g
vanilla pod 1
unsalted butter 250g, softened
icing sugar 60g
dark chocolate 100g, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
Preheat the oven to 160C/gas 3 and line two large baking trays with baking paper. Sift the flour, salt and cornflour into a large bowl and mix together well.
Split the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Put into a food processor with the butter and icing sugar, add the flour mix and whizz until it becomes a smooth paste.
Put the mixture into a piping bag with a 1cm-wide star nozzle and pipe about 40 lines of fingers about 6cm long onto the prepared baking trays. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Leave on the trays for 5 minutes, then put on a rack to cool.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. When the fingers are cool, dip into your melted chocolate and place on a rack until the chocolate sets.
From Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding by Justin Gellatly (Fig Tree, £25)
20 best biscuit recipes: part 4 launches tomorrow morning
