GBBO Cornish Fairings

We’re off to the in-laws today as they’re giving us a lift to Heathrow tomorrow morning for our flight to Morocco! As a thank you, I thought I’d make them some biscuits – but nothing that would take too long as I had to pack too! I had a search through my recipe books and through the cupboards to see what we had in, and decided on Cornish Fairings from the GBBO Great British Book of Baking.

Cornish Fairings

Ingredients

1. 100g plain flour
2. 1 tsp baking powder
3. ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
4. 1 tsp ground mixed spice (they suggest ½ tsp – I definitely prefer more oomph!)
5. 40g castor sugar
6. 50g butter, chilled and diced
7. 1.5 tblsp mixed peel, finely chopped
8. 3 tblsp golden syrup (level not rounded), gently warmed

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/GM5.
2. Cover 2 baking trays with baking parchment.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb, mixed spice and sugar in a mixing bowl.
4. Add the butter and rub into the flour mixture, using the tips of your fingers, until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
5. Mix in the peel, followed by the syrup, to make a dough.
6. Using your hands, roll the mixture into 18 marble-sized balls.
7. Set them on the baking trays, spacing them well apart to allow for spreading.
8. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 7-8 minutes, turning the trays half-way through baking to help the biscuits to bake evenly.
9. Leave to cool on the trays for a minute until firm, then lift on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
10. Store in an airtight tin.

 Verdict

I actually ended up making two batches of these. The first batch was very sticky when it came together as a dough: the instructions in the GBBO book suggested that it should be a firm dough. I assumed that I had added too much golden syrup so added a bit more flour and sugar to firm up the dough. However, the biscuits didn’t spread as much as expected and were more cookie-like than I imagined they should be, although they tasted good.

Batch 2, I just accepted that it would be a sticky dough and went ahead with the bake. These spread a bit more and had more of a crunch once cool – although they still don’t look quite like those in the book’s photo.