Full question
Hi, I tend to freeze biscuits to bake a few at a time as I am not doing group catering at the moment. Because these chocolate biscuits are baked at a low temperature, I have to leave them in much longer if I bake them from frozen, double the time. Plus they come out quite crunchy rather than the usual melting shortbread texture. Is there a way round this or do they just not work baked from frozen?
Our answer
Nigella's recipe for Granny Boyd's Biscuits (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS are chocolate shortbread biscuits that have a very fine, sandy texture. The dough is formed into balls and then flattened with a fork before baking. The baking temperature is 190c/170c fan/375F and then at 170c/150c fan/325F, which is not particularly low given that many biscuits and cookies are baked at 180c/160c fan/350F. If the biscuits are crunchy it suggests to us that they have been baked for too long and are starting to dry out.
We are not sure if the dough is frozen in balls or after it has been flattened but we would recommend putting the balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment (parchment paper) pressing them down with a fork and then freezing the shaped cookies on the baking sheet. Once they are solid you can transfer the biscuits to an airtight container and freeze them for up to 3 months. This way the cookies should bake from frozen quickly and should only need a minute or two extra baking time and should keep their texture.
Tell us what you think
Thank you {% member.data['first-name'] %}.
Explore more questionsYour comment has been submitted.