Classic Custard Biscuits

I think if you are living in Europe and if you have BBC and you love Baking, I am sure you know about  Great British Bake Off  I am hooked to the series from the time they started couple of years ago.

And it started again with 12 candidates 3 weeks ago and every week I am watching the programme and forcing Hans to watch with me too.
And this year I thought I will make something from each series.
I have made something from the first week, but when I made these custard biscuit and shared the picture in my Instagram and Fb everyone wanted to have the recipe, so I though I better add this recipe first.

I always loved custard biscuits, even though here in Belgium they are not common, it is common in India and also in England. And every time I go to the British store or when ever I go to UK i pick up few packs of custard biscuits and bourbon biscuits.

I must say even though you can buy them  cheap, the home made ones are so  delicious, once you had home made ones I think you will never buy from shops.
I have to say mine lasted 3 days and they were good on the third day too. I don't know how they will taste after that ,if they would be still crunchy as mine didn't last that long.

When I saw this Classic Custard Biscuits in one of the many Facebook groups I am in, I knew I will be making them, and asked her were she got the recipe and she shared the link to everyone's delight in the group.

Tip:

Mine baked in 12 minutes. I didn't used the traditional square size, I used my cookie stamper.

Ingredients
200 g (7oz) plain flour, plus extra to dust
50 g (2oz) Bird's custard powder
1 tsp baking powder
75 g (3oz) caster sugar ( I used 60 gm)
125 g (4oz) unsalted butter, chilled, cut into cubes
1 medium egg
1 tbsp milk

FOR THE FILLING
Ingredients
75g (3oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4oz) icing sugar
2tbsp Bird's custard powder

Method :

For the biscuits, put the flour, custard powder, baking powder, sugar and butter into a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Alternatively, rub the butter into the flour mixture using your fingertips.
Add the egg and milk and pulse until the mixture just comes together. Tip on to a work surface, bring together with your hands, then wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 min or up to 1 day.

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Lightly flour a work surface and roll out dough until 3mm (⅛in) thick. Cut it into an even number of 3cm x 4.5 cm (1¼in x 1¾in) rectangles, re rolling trimmings as needed. If you like, mark the rectangles with a diamond and a dot in each corner.
Put rectangles on prepared sheets and bake for 13-15 min until lightly golden. Cool on the sheet for 3min, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, put the softened butter into a large bowl and sift over icing sugar and custard powder. Mix to combine (don't add water as it needs to be fairly thick). Set aside.
When the biscuits are cool, sandwich together with some of the filling, using a piping bag if you want a neater finish.

Soba Noodle Salad With Radishes

I wanted to try something new that the usual cold pasta salad I make when it is hot weather.

So I was going through my Wagamama Cook book and saw the recipe for a noodle salade.
I made little change plus I like more dressing so I adjusted the dressing to my taste.
So the recipe I have written below is not exactly as in the book. I just made a little change for my liking.

Serves 2:

125 gm Soba noodles
12 to 14 radishes thinly sliced
1 carrot Juilenned
1/4 cucumber ,deseeded and finely sliced
2 to 3 spring onions finely sliced
6 to 8 mint leaves roughly chopped
Couple of corriander leaves chopped
1 red thai chilli sliced ( you can add more if you like it spicy but i think the samade should not be over spicy)
Tosted sesame seeds and white seasmae seeds fro garnish
Juice of 1 lime and zest

Dressing:

2 tsp of honey
2 tsp of fish sauce
2 tso of rice vinegar
2 tsp of mirin
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix together the dressing ingredients in a small pan, bring to boil and set aside to cool. When it is cool stir the lime juice and the zest.

Cook the noodles according to the packet instruction drain and refresh under cold water.

Combine the noodles with the radishes, cucumber,spring onions,mint, chilli and corriander.
Add the cooled dressing and toss everything to make sure that everything is coated.
Check the seasoning and if you want add more salt.
Sprinkle with the both the kind of sesame seeds and serve.

Pasta with Scampi Lime and Saffron

I have been always a huge fan of Peter Minakis Greek Food blog Kalofogas and that has been for years. And I have made few dishes from his place which are all absloutely Delicious.

And when he posted this Scampi recipe I remember saying to myself I am going to make this one day, but then as always there is so many dishes I want to make and sometimes it happens like this one.
Have to say only regret I have is that why I hadn't made this one earlier as it is so Delicious.
With the zest of lime it is a real refreshing pasta dish.

You can always make exactly as Peter has made, I kept ti the original recipe just that I made with less pasta but mostly kept the rest of the ingridients quantity for the amount of pasta he used.

And instead of white wine I used Nolly prat as I always have a bottle of that and I tend to use that when I don't have opend up wine or wine in the freezer for cooking purpose.

And ok I did add a bit more chilli flakes :-)

The Original recipe you can find here

350 gm Pasta ( I used Linguni)
1/4 cup olive oil
18 medium sized Shrimps
1 onion finely chopped
8 garlic thinly sliced
100 ml Nolly Pratt
Few stands of Saffron
Zest of 2 Limes
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp chilli flakes
1/4 cup freshly chopped parsely
1/4 cup sliced spring onions
Black and white seasame seeds for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Season the scampis with pepper and salt.
Heat a pan with a little of oil and fry the scampis for 1 minute each side and keep it aside.
Add the rest of the olive oil and add the chopped onions and saute for few minutes ,
Add the garlic slices and the chilli flakes and fry for few minutes.
Add the Nolly prat and cook in a high heat for couple of minutes .
In the mean time cook your pasta according the the packet instruction , drain,make sure you keep a few bog spoons of pasta water to add later.

Now add to the pan, the chopped parsley, lime juice,chopped spring onions and the lime zest and the drained pasta together with the few spoons of pasta water.
Add the scampi's which are kept aside , mix everything together and serve with a sprinkling of seasame seeds.
If you like you can sprinkle with a bit more chilli flakes.