Raspberry White Chocolate Shortbread | GBBO Bakealong Week 1

Happy Sunday everyone!

For those of you who do not know, the Great British Bake Off has once again returned to our beautiful television screens. Now, if I am being honest I should not pretend that I am some sort of die hard Bake Off fanatic. Truth is, I did not start watching Bake Off until 2015 (which unfortunately was also the last year it was on the BBC — still bitter about that). However, I have been an avid fan ever since. There not many TV shows that can actually keep me hooked because anyone who knows me knows that all I really watch is Japanese anime, Strictly come dancing or Jane the Virgin (#team Rafael). But something about Bake off just gives me all the warm fuzzies and I end up jumping for joy when someone gets the well sought after Hollywood Handshake. So I guess it comes as no surprise that this year I have decided to do a Bake Along.

I am pretty sure the Great British Bake Along is not a new thing — if it is, kudos to me for being original! All I will basically be doing is baking along with the other bakers in the competition each week. Before you say it, yes, I am very aware that I am two weeks behind but the last two weekends have been very busy for me and there was no way that I was going to find time to bake anything decent. But like they say, it is better late never, right? Anyways, there are no hard and fast rules about the bakes as the whole point of me doing it is to try new things. I can get into the habit of baking or making the same things over and over again simply because I know it will always be successful. Like it has gotten to a point where I can make a cake in my sleep. And while that is not a bad thing, I really want to explore new techniques and skills and just see how things turn out. Saying that, I have decided to not try and take on the technical challenge every week, mainly because my poor mother helps me in the kitchen and I do not want to run her ragged. Therefore, I decided to stick to the signature bakes…-ish. If for some reason, I have some time off work and feeling super motivated (a.k.a. on a caffeine high) then I might tackle a showstopper but do not get your hopes up. Really, don’t.

Right, now that we have all the formalities out of the way, let’s start with week one… Biscuits!

Truth be told I was slightly upset that the first week of Bake Off started with biscuits. It’s not because I find biscuits difficult to make (although my shortbread did try and get on my last nerve) but I simply don’t like biscuits. Or rather, I have never really liked them enough to want to bake some. So after going back and forth in my head on what biscuit to make I decided to make shortbread. At first, I was really gunning to make some cookies as I’m desperately trying to find a decent chewy cookie recipe that actually works for me. But since the signature bake was meant to be a regional biscuit (and I wasn’t in the mood to research what biscuit was regional to the East Midlands) shortbread seemed like my best bet. Only problem was, I had issues with shortbread in the past.

My first attempt at making shortbread was back when I was about 15 years old. My mum had just bought me James Martin’s deserts cookbook and I was very excited to cook something straightaway. The simplest recipe in there was a recipe for shortbread and so I thought “why not?”. Before this, I had never made shortbread or any other type of biscuit so I had no real frame of reference as to what the dough or the biscuit should look like. Therefore, when the recipe said you should use an equal amount of butter to flour, I didn’t question it. And when my dough was sticking to the table, I thought it was all part of the process. And when my biscuits were so short that they literally just tasted like butter being held together with flour… Well at that point I realised something had probably gone a bit wrong. After that, I kind of avoided shortbread. However, this week I was determined to get this right in honour — no, in respect — to the shortbread dreams my 15-year-old self imagined. And to be fair, the biscuits came out okay.

The first thing I did was find a recipe that used a lot less butter to flour. There might be a way to do it with an equal amount of butter to flour but I find it too short. I ended up using Rachel Allen’s recipe which is linked here. As you can see her recipe uses the 123 ratio — that is one part sugar, to 2 parts butter, to 3 parts flour. It was actually two years ago that I learned this is the magic ratio for just about any biscuit. Or at least any shortbread-like biscuit.

Her recipe then goes on to flavour it with orange zest and chocolate. Now, I spent WAY too much time trying to figure out what combination of flavours I wanted to put into the shortbread. At first, I was thinking lemon zest and thyme. Then I thought why not be adventurous and add rosemary? Or maybe something tropical with dried mango and coconuts? Do I do shortbread biscuit sandwiches? Do I fill them with crème patisserie or ice cream? Then I remembered biscuits weren’t my forte and settled for raspberry and white chocolate. This was mainly because I knew these were flavourings that wouldn’t mess with the ratios of butter, sugar and flour. So the plan was to add freeze-dried raspberries to my dough and dip the baked shortbread in white chocolate. Simple yet elegant.

The dough came together pretty easily and I left in the fridge for about eight minutes to firm up whilst I got the baking trays lined. However, when it came to rolling out the dough, it didn’t feel right. The dough was still very soft to touch which meant it was useless trying to roll it so I ended up patting it into shape. But this meant that my dough basically looks like it had cellulite and it didn’t quite stay together around the edges. In hindsight, all I had to do was let the dough rest in the fridge for a good 25 minutes in order to let the butter re-solidify but I was impatient. I had already spent three hours baking batches of gluten-free ginger cookies with my mum (they went surprisingly well) and I wanted to finish in time to watch Strictly. So my slightly skewed priorities meant I had a soft dough but I knew it wasn’t so soft that it would ruin the biscuit. 10 minutes later, all of my biscuits were cut out and delicately placed in a 160°C oven.

The recipe said the biscuits should bake for 6 to 10 minutes or until lightly golden so I thought my best bet was seven minutes as a starting point. Seven minutes later, I open the oven door and they don’t look done. That’s completely fine as all I had to do was add another three minutes and they would be finish. Three minutes later, I open the oven door, give them the classic baker’s tap and although they feel soft I think they are done. I take them out and burn my mouth two minutes later trying to taste them only to discover that they are still kind of raw. Now, a patient person would have put it back in the oven at 160°C and let them cook in their own time but if you have yet to realise, I am not a patient person. So, surprise surprise I turned the oven up to 180 and whilst the biscuits cooked quickly, my raspberries got a bit dark. Not burnt, just dark. In terms of timings, my biscuits were quite small but they were a tad thick so I recommend 160°C for 12 to 15 minutes. Just so you know my oven is a fan oven so you should adjust the temperature accordingly.

These were a solid 8/10

However, despite the baking time issue, I ended up with some really good shortbread. They were tender and buttery and didn’t completely melt to nothing in my mouth. I know some people prefer their shortbread to crumble completely by like a little bit of bite. The only thing I didn’t end up doing was the white chocolate dip. Mainly because at this point it was 5:30 in the evening and I wanted some dinner but I do recommend you go and make the effort of adding the chocolate. Raspberries can be quite tart and I think the shortbread would have benefited from a little creamy sweetness from white chocolate. If you take anything away from this blog post: do as I say and not as I do!

And this brings us to the end of week one of the Great British Bake Along. If anyone reading this is also baking along with the show, comment below and let me know how you are going. I would love to hear what you’re baking and whether you’ve had successes or utter failures. This is a safe space and I can promise you there will be no laughing at your soggy bottoms!

See you next week

Mary xx