richard-in-cincy
Well-known member
COTSWOLD CREMES ‘HYACINTH’
6 Tablespoons chilled butter
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 ½ Tablespoons light cream (from the Cotswolds please!)
some sugar
With your pastry blender (I mean your kitchen accoutrement – not your hubby!) or blending fork, cut the chilled butter into the sifted flour till the pieces are the size of small peas (petit pois). Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of the Cotswold cream over the dry part and mix – lightly! Push this to the moistened part at the side of the bowl (You should be using a bowl for this.) Repeat the last direction till the entire mixture is moistened. Form it into a ball. And then divide the ball in half. Now you have two balls. (Use your hands for this purpose, please; this is not a grapefruit.)
On a lightly floured work surface, roll each ball (with a rolling pin) to slightly less than 1/8 inch high. Cut it into rounds with a floured 1 ½ inch biscuit cutter. Dip one side of each round in sugar. Place each round, sugar side up, ½ inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. With a fork (your ordinary everyday cutlery works well for this) prick each round in 4 parallel rows. Bake at 375 degrees about 8 minutes or till golden and puffy. Remove at once to a rack! Once the biscuit rounds are thoroughly cooled, make little sandwiches of them (two rounds per biscuit) by putting Cotswold Crème Filling between the rounds, always keeping the sugary side "up".
COTSWOLD CRÈME FILLING: Thoroughly combine ¾ cup sifted confectioner’s sugar, 1 Tablespoon soft butter, 1/8 tsp vanilla (this is for unadventurous cooks; I myself like adding a little plum flavouring with a hint of honeysuckle and a touch of lime but Richard says it is not something to recommend to readers who are just learning to cook like me; I suppose he’s right that it’s safer if you stick with vanilla; it makes for a more boring biscuit but it can’t be helped. Anyway, as you’re not serving them to Emmet I’m sure you’ll be all right. Emmet adores my Cotswold Cremes with the plum flavouring and a hint of honeysuckle and a touch of lime but then that’s how he is.) Add 1 Tablespoon light cream or enough for spreading.
(N.B. You may use any kind of light cream from any part of the world, but you will be not be able to enjoy the occasion without your conscience pricking you if say you are serving Cotswold Cremes and your cream does not, in fact, come from the Cotswolds.)
Recipe by Hyacinth Bucket
6 Tablespoons chilled butter
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 ½ Tablespoons light cream (from the Cotswolds please!)
some sugar
With your pastry blender (I mean your kitchen accoutrement – not your hubby!) or blending fork, cut the chilled butter into the sifted flour till the pieces are the size of small peas (petit pois). Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of the Cotswold cream over the dry part and mix – lightly! Push this to the moistened part at the side of the bowl (You should be using a bowl for this.) Repeat the last direction till the entire mixture is moistened. Form it into a ball. And then divide the ball in half. Now you have two balls. (Use your hands for this purpose, please; this is not a grapefruit.)
On a lightly floured work surface, roll each ball (with a rolling pin) to slightly less than 1/8 inch high. Cut it into rounds with a floured 1 ½ inch biscuit cutter. Dip one side of each round in sugar. Place each round, sugar side up, ½ inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. With a fork (your ordinary everyday cutlery works well for this) prick each round in 4 parallel rows. Bake at 375 degrees about 8 minutes or till golden and puffy. Remove at once to a rack! Once the biscuit rounds are thoroughly cooled, make little sandwiches of them (two rounds per biscuit) by putting Cotswold Crème Filling between the rounds, always keeping the sugary side "up".
COTSWOLD CRÈME FILLING: Thoroughly combine ¾ cup sifted confectioner’s sugar, 1 Tablespoon soft butter, 1/8 tsp vanilla (this is for unadventurous cooks; I myself like adding a little plum flavouring with a hint of honeysuckle and a touch of lime but Richard says it is not something to recommend to readers who are just learning to cook like me; I suppose he’s right that it’s safer if you stick with vanilla; it makes for a more boring biscuit but it can’t be helped. Anyway, as you’re not serving them to Emmet I’m sure you’ll be all right. Emmet adores my Cotswold Cremes with the plum flavouring and a hint of honeysuckle and a touch of lime but then that’s how he is.) Add 1 Tablespoon light cream or enough for spreading.
(N.B. You may use any kind of light cream from any part of the world, but you will be not be able to enjoy the occasion without your conscience pricking you if say you are serving Cotswold Cremes and your cream does not, in fact, come from the Cotswolds.)
Recipe by Hyacinth Bucket
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