This is the second time I've tackled this recipe from
Dan Lepard in less than a month. The first time I didn't have dried blueberries, so made a
cherry version instead. The cookies were a great success, so I vowed to try the recipe as written, as soon as possible. I soon found dried blueberries on special offer in the supermarket - £15 per kilo instead of £20. Doesn't it sound awfully extravagant when you say it like that? It's certainly more than I pay for most of the chocolate I buy for baking!
The blueberry version, with the addition of almond extract was just as delicious, but I wasn't entirely happy with the flavour of the extract. Although I bought a natural extract it still tasted artificial compared to the delicate flavour of real almonds - I think one teaspoonful was too much for my taste. Dried blueberries worked better than dried cherries in one respect - they are much smaller, so were better distributed throughout the dough. This time I used chopped eating chocolate - 100g of 74% and 50g of 60% - but still had the problem of some of it melting during cooking. Doesn't matter though - it doesn't affect the flavour!
7 comments:
Which supermarket was that Suelle? They are a ferocious price last time I looked in Mr Waitrose. I made a version of these with some children a couple of weekends ago, one of whom decided at the last minute to include mini marshmallows, but they are so nice and easy to shape, though the marshmallows of course melted everywhere! I think it's a great basic recipe with good proportions, don't you? I too have reservations about the almond extract, but I understand the reason for it is to mask the slight bitterness you get from wholemeal flour in cakes and biscuits, I haven't tried them with vanilla which I think lots have used instead.
Tesco is selling blueberries on offer at the moment, Jo - 2 x 100g packs for £3.00 instead of £4.00. They're with the wholefood packaged dried fruit and nuts sold in the fresh fruit and veg section. I think sour cherries and some of the expensive nuts are part of the same offer. I noticed how expensive Waitrose's were today - almost £25/kg!
I used vanilla in the cherry version I made and didn't notice any bitterness in the finished biscuit. I found the almond extract quite bitter in itself.
I think this is a very good basic dough, as you say. I can see it being a very useful carrier for all sorts of flavours. And ideal for children to shape, of course, as it's not too sloppy!
These look delicious Suelle. Lucie x
Almond extract is so tricky - the flavour is so dominating! I have just ordered some dried blueberries and cherries from Wilton Wholefoods - £1.99/100g, less if you are buying larger quantities. With the postage it didn't come out that cheaply, but when I am buying loads for Christmas cakes or whatever it'll be good value.
Foodycat - it's always the postage which stops me ordering this sort of thing online, as it usually still works out cheaper to buy the supermarket stuff, unless you are putting in a bulk order.
I really like them with blueberries, I know it sounds odd, but they're very intensely blueberry-y if you see what I mean. It is a good basic mix and I'm hopefully going to try other combinations.
You might want to try Holland and Barrett if you've got one close (or Julian Graves) as they sometimes have some pretty good offers on dried cranberries and crystallised stem ginger. I'm pretty sure they do dried blueberries too and they sometimes have a 3 for 2 on all dried fruit. I'll look next time I see one and report back!
These cookies sound delicious (apart from the almond extract perhaps) - love the use of blueberries and cherries, imagine both would be really good.
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