Biscuit batter – Italian recipe (VIDEO)
If you’re looking for a basic dough that can be put through a cookie press, this is the one.
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Hi GialloZafferano viewers and welcome to our kitchen. Today we’ll be preparing a biscuit batter which is a pastry recipe that is used to make biscuits which are formed using either a pastry bag or a cookie press. This batter is quite a bit softer than a traditional cookie dough. Let’s see what we’ll need to make it.
• 2 and a quarter sticks (250 g) of butter at room temperature
• 2 3/4 cups (375 g) of cake flour
• just over 1 cup (125 g) of powdered sugar
• 2 medium eggs and 1 yolk • A pinch of salt
• The zest of an organic lemon, organic orange, or a teaspoon of whichever flavoured extract you’d like
Let’s see how to make our cookie batter.
First of all put the softened butter and lemon zest into the bowl of a kitchen mixer. In this case I’ve chosen lemon, but at this point you can add whatever flavourings you’d like. At this point run the mixer until the butter is soft and creamy.
As you can see, the butter is whipped. Now add the powdered sugar. Of course sift it first to keep clumps from forming. Now start the mixer again and run it for another few minutes until the resulting mixture has become very foamy.
The butter and sugar are whipped to stiff peaks. Remember that after the mixer has run for about a minute, stop it and run the sides of the bowl with a spatula to reincorporate any sugar that’s gone up the sides. Now add the eggs one at a time. It’s very important that the eggs are at room temperature when this is done. So, add one, lower the mixer and only when it’s completely mixed in should you add the next.
Just before stopping the mixer, I added the pinch of salt and let it mix in for another minute. Then shut off the mixer and remove the bowl. Now, you’ll need to fold in the sifted flour by hand. Use a spatula with a long handle for this.
After it’s all mixed, put the batter into a pastry bag with a medium star-shaped nozzle. Now, squeeze the batter out onto a greased pan in whatever shape you’d like, rings, horseshoes, esses, and then decorate your biscuits with candied or dried fruit. If you don’t like using a pastry bag, you can use a cookie press with the same effect.
I’ve finished forming the biscuits. Now, I’ll chill them in the fridge for at least an hour, afterwhich they can be baked at 350F for 10 to 15 minutes. Pay close attention to them while baking so that they stay a light colour.
And here’s the finale of only one of the recipes which can be made with this cookie batter. These crumbly cookies are perfect with tea, coffee, hot chocolate and will certainly brighten your afternoon.