Super Zesty Lemon Snaps #12week

Experimentation has its limits. This is the lesson I learnt last weekend while I was pretending to be a super chef plotting the preparation of a recipe which would revolutionary modern cuisine as we know it. Oblivious to all reason, I wanted to innovate in a field in which I am not particularly adept, experiencing consistent and resounding failure: biscuit making.

Things were as follows.

Some weeks ago I prepared a sort of super concentrated extra zesty and mega chunky lemon syrup. Yes, not sure if I thought it was going to be a sure fire win or what. I love lemons, even raw on their own, but the syrup was soooo strong that made me cry just by smelling it. Two jars full over the sides have been there, in my kitchen, greeting us every morning, leaving me not knowing what to say to them.

Last week, I knew I had to use it. I thought It would be nice to prepare some lemony biscuits with it. What a bad idea. Maybe I did not use the correct proportions of the ingredients, perhaps the cooking time was not right, but the result was a disgusting, overcooked and inedible mass hard enough to kill somebody.

Humiliated but not deterred, I decided to persist. My instincts told me that my lemon syrup had to work.

A couple of days later, the boys were extremely tired after a long week, in no mood for doing anything. So I offered them to prepare some biscuits. Messy things always cheer them up.

This time I thought I was going to try something different. We all mixed, kneaded, squished, rolled up and out the dough until we were completely satisfied with the result and covered with flour top to toe. That was the last jar of the syrup and I was not ready for another failure.

After endless minutes waiting in front of the oven, our snaps were ready: flat, thin, refreshing, crispy and a little bit chewy, lemon snaps to nibble all day long.

And just to prove myself they were as good as I thought, I took some to the office where they lasted for just 10 minutes, including a taste buds orgasm from one of my colleagues that made me feel a bit awkward for hours.

It is last Friday of the month, and that means that here you have my #12week list. To know more about this project click here.

WHAT YOU NEED

For the syrup

2 Lemons
1 Lime
150gr Light Muscovado Sugar
1tsp Honey

For the Snaps

120gr Unsalted Butter
1 Free Range Egg
200gr Muscovado Sugar
300gr Self Raising Four
50gr Mixed Candied Citrus Peel

WHAT YOU DO

For the syrup.

Zest the lemons and lime and juice them. Mix the zest, juice, sugar and honey in a medium size saucepan. Bring to the boil stirring continuously and then leave on a medium heat for around 15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Tip: to test if the syrup is done, drop a spoonful in a plate and let it cool down. If the syrup looks like jelly, then it´s finished. Don´t let it set too much or it will be too hard to work with. In case of any doubt, is preferable to leave it a bit more liquid. Set aside.

For the snaps

In a large bowl, soften the butter with a fork, add the egg and combine. Add the sugar and mix until smooth and soft. Finally, add the syrup still warm and whisk thoroughly.

Then start adding the flour. With the help of a sieve, add the flour little by little, mixing until incorporated.

Pre-heat the oven to 190C.

Sprinkle some flour in a work surface. Mix the dough with your hands until soft  and roll it out with a rolling pin. Cut it into strips and add some candied peel on top.

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, place the snaps carefully, so they are not too close together, and bake for around 15 minutes. Tip: biscuits can be still soft and tender when warm, even when they are ready. Once they are cold, the dough will harden. When baking biscuits, if they start getting brown, that probably means you´ve over cooked them and will be too hard to eat when cold.

Transfer to a cooling rack to firm up.

Enjoy!