Stained glass window robins
DO NOT MAKE THESE BISCUITS – well MAKE THE BISCUIT but FORGET ABOUT THE BOILED SWEET. There, I feel better already.
350 g SR flour
100 g unsalted butter, cubed
175 g caster sugar
1 large egg
1 teasp vanilla extract
4 tbsp golden syrup, warmed
12 red boiled sweets (i.e. 1 for every 2 biscuits), broken up
Stained glass window robins
Preheat oven to 180°C/ 160°C for a fan oven/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
Sift flour into a large bowl and into this rub the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. In a separate bowl whisk egg, vanilla extract and golden syrup and pour this into the middle of the flour and butter mixture. Mix until a smooth dough is formed. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the refrigerator for 30 mins.
After the dough has rested in the fridge, roll out the dough (either between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper or 2 pieces of cling film rather than on a floured board which can make the mixture too dry). Cut out the biscuits with a fancy cutter.
Transfer to baking trays and cut out a hole in the middle of the biscuits. Fill this hole with half a broken sweet which has been crushed previously. (If you want to hang these from a Christmas tree, make a little hole in the top of the biscuits – use a skewer or something similar).
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the sweets are melted. (Make sure the little holes for hanging are still there – re-pierce if necessary. When cold thread a ribbon through the holes.) Two trays of biscuits but lots of dough remains. This I have frozen.
Stained glass window robins
I have long wanted to make stained glass biscuits – I don’t really know why, except that I remember seeing some similar at a school fair years ago and thought how pretty they looked. When I was small, my father regularly bought a quarter of boiled sweets funnelled out from one of those big sweet jars lining the shelf behind the counter of the local corner shop. He would then hide away the little paper bag containing them and at various times of his own choosing magic it up and ponderously hand the sweets out, one at a time, precious like little shiny jewels. I never particularly liked them.
I am probably not the only person who doesn’t care for boiled sweets as they have not been easy to find – every supermarket, mini market and newsagent has masses of cellophane packets of mainly gummy sweets, for which Haribo reigns supreme. Eventually, last Saturday, I found a packet of Fox’s Glacier Fruits in Paddington Station Smiths and, wouldn’t you know it, by the time I got home I discovered the vicar had also been successful having found a different brand from the newish old-style sweet shop in Wallingford. Now was obviously the time to make the biscuits.
“Cut up the sweets” the original recipe optimistically suggested. I took up a hammer and suitably crushed the Fox’s Glacier Fruits but the sweets the vicar had bought remained intact however hard I hit them, so I discarded these. Not for the first time I began to wonder why I was making these biscuits. This thought became more insistent when cooking was over as these were very nice biscuits with an unpleasant hard centre. Who on earth would want their children to eat one of these? I certainly wouldn’t. I took them to church suggesting people nibbled round the hard bit and then threw it away. Kitchen paper was provided.
Ipsden children’s Epiphany service: Crowns fit for kings
This was our second children’s service at Ipsden – not counting Christingle -and such are the vaguaries of country parishes that we had 14 adults, a 12 year-old and a baby of just under a year. We were not disheartened for in order to create a pattern – say the second Sunday in a month for the children’s service – you have to set it (to quote from my newly acquired knitting terminology). With no children, channelling the inner child seemed to come only too easily to the adults who dipped into pots of sequins, mounds of bright feathers and artificial flowers to decorate gold crowns in celebration of Epiphany. (I should have brought my discarded sweets for decoration too – although they were probably too heavy for any known glue.) Some stalwarts had a biscuit and we agreed jam would have been better. None of the plain biscuits stamped with a lion remained. The 12 year old led us in prayers she had written, while the baby, who came courtesy of a visiting trainee priest, behaved perfectly. The vicar is still nibbling his way around the robin biscuits. Lots of dough remains which I have frozen.
14 Comments
I remember making stained glass window biscuits a few years ago, and being just as underwhelmed as you. Rather like fancy cupcakes, which tend to have far too much sweet, oily, cloying icing and far too little taste. I now class both in the category “Snare And Delusion”!
Perhaps, like me you too made your glass too thick, Rachel. (See Becky’s comment). I must say I am persuaded that thinner glass may be the answer … although I can’t help but think jam might be nicer.
I feel so sad about this because I have intended to make stained glass biscuits for many, many years. The knowledge that this is a worthless ambition is almost too much to bear.
All is not lost Alice and hold the shattering of those dreams for the time being. Becky (see comment below) suggests I made the glass too thick and this I’m sure is the problem. So maybe I’ll pick up my hammer again and have another go … sometime … and you can still look forward to the joy of making them yourself.
I hate to think I’ve made anyone’s ambition worthless, so ignore me and reinstate stained glass window biscuits to its rightful place on you to do list. Sorry.
Hi. I have made stained glass biscuits several times and they are always really good. I think the glass was just too thick. 2 sweets per biscuit seems too much. I would say that you need less than one so that the glass is really thin and then they are much better. I suspect that you won’t try again! Was your lion stamp specifically for biscuits? bx
Ah! You might well be right about the thickness of the glass – although I did only use half a sweet per biscuit – but then again my hole for the glass was rather small which would have made the glass thicker.
Bless you for this and for restoring the possibility of future joy to Alice’s heart (see comment above) and I can only thank you for that.
Perhaps … just perhaps, as the result of your advice, I might try again … sometime … later …
I suppose you could use the lion stamp for ink, etc., but would you then want to use it for biscuits afterwards?
Even if the biscuits don’t taste good, if you put a little hole in the top when you make them then they look lovely on the Christmas tree. I might have to experiment with a biscuit stamp as those lions look great and I think they would be very appealing to children and adults. bx ps I bought six toblerones to make those toblerone biscuits and the result was that I have eaten six toblerones.
I tried eating another of these biscuits yesterday – 6 days after making them. The glass was, as it happens thinner and the biscuit was, as you suggested, better. I think lightness of touch with the broken sweets is the way to go and, as I agree they look good on the Christmas tree, I may well make them again for next Christmas – all thanks to your advice.
The biscuit stamps are fun. I think they were quite cheap and came from Butlers (http://www.butlers-online.co.uk) in Islington but I can’t see any on their website now.
Sorry about encouraging Toblerone gorging – you are not the only one.
So glad you did the experimenting Mary – I’ve always wanted to make these. I might still one day, but just to hang against a window. I would fear for my fillings if I tried to eat one…
I too had similar worries about my fillings – and children’s teeth in general.
I’m convinced thinner glass – and therefore less sugar – is the way to go.
Do have a go.
I could feel your despair! I too, have never made stained glass biscuits, though I always think they look pretty. I just feel apprehensive about having lots of boiled sugar stuck to baking trays- or perhaps you line the trays. We still have boxes of left over chocolates from christmas, though thankfully no Toblerones, or I would have to eat them all. I noticed some very large, flat, ‘single peak’ Toblerones in the shops pre christmas. They looked fantastic…… (I did not buy) x
But Penny if YOU made them they’d be perfect – I’m sure you’re less slapdash than I am. And no, they don’t stick to the baking tray if you line them (oh dear, did I miss that out). So no excuse for not having a go for the next school event (I do agree you wouldn’t make them for just ordinary eating at home).
Yes, I think large Toblerones are a Christmas phenomenon.
Well done for having lots of chocs left from Christmas – and even better well done for not being tempted to eat them continuously until they are gone – but what DO you do with them. We were sent various boxes of M&S chocs some of which we took when invited out to lunch, etc. But there are still 2 boxes left and I worry they will be past their best (or horror of horrors, have taken on that dried up greyness) before we are invited out again.
I agree. An embarrassment of riches as far as boxes of chocolates and biscuits are concerned. Our local Marie Curie centre accepts donations of unopened, in date, chocolates and biscuits. They use the biscuits for visitors, relatives etc, and raffle the chocolates for their on-going fund raising. Thus no need to gorge on chocolates, amd no guilt associated with the re-purposing. X
Gosh, Penny, having a charity shop accepting donations of chocolate and then the donating of the chocolates – mind boggling on so many levels.