We’re all looking for ways to scale down our Christmas this year. So rather than baking three dozen cookies, how about a batch of brandy snaps instead? The recipe produces as few as eight of these elegant sweet cigars, though easily doubles or triples as well.
Serve with your favourite digestif after a meal with your nearest and dearest.
Makes 8 brandy snaps
Ingredients
25g butter
25g brown sugar
25g golden syrup / golden corn syrup
25g flour, sifted
1/8 tsp ground ginger
Zest of 1/4 lemon
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp brandy
Vegetable oil
To serve: unsweetened whipped cream
Method:
Preheat your oven to 350F / 180C / 160C Fan. Line two baking trays with parchment.
Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring often, until the butter has melted. Set aside.
Sift the flour and ginger into a bowl. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and brandy. Pour in the butter mixture and mix well with a spoon, until smooth.
Place heaped teaspoons of the mixture in three piles on the parchment-lined baking tray. Leave lots of room for the mixture to spread out. Bake for 8 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave to cool for about a minute. Pry the brandy snaps off the parchment and wrap around the handle of a wooden spoon that you have greased with vegetable oil. Press down at the seam, shape into a cylinder, then remove from the handle and leave to cool on a rack.
Just before serving, pipe whipped cream into the brandy snaps.
Make ahead: Transfer cooled brandy snaps to an airtight container. Keeps for up to 3 days.
Make ahead: Cream can be whipped and stored in the piping bag up to 6 hours ahead. Pipe in cream just before serving.
Serve with coffee or your favourite digestif. Or, stick an unfilled brandy snap into a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a more substantial offering.
Caroline Feeds 