#basicbaking

Basic dough (Murutaikina in Finnish - crumb dough)

Makes about forty 5 cm (2 in) diameter round biscuits.

Ing List

200 g soft unsalted butter (I’ll try with half salted and I’ll keep you updated)

1-1.5 dl sugar (I’d go for 1 dl if you’re not fond of sweet stuff, or are planning to add chocolate, caramel or candied fruit)

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

4 dl flour

If you really crave for plain sweet you can add 0.5-2 tsp vanilla sugar

Working the Magic 1: Basic Biscuits

You need to be quick, because there’s a lot of butter.

Mix together the soft butter and sugar until well combined and fluffy.

Add the egg, mix until well combined.

Add all dry ingredients (including chopped candied fruit, chocolate chips, or whatever you like) and mix quickly until smooth. It might feel a bit sticky at this point, but remember there’s a lot of butter. Don’t add too much flour over the prescribed 4 dl, because otherwise you’ll get rock cakes… and we know how those go down.

Put into the fridge to set for half an hour.

Heat the oven to 175 °C.

Roll the dough into a tube and cut into as many biscuits you want to make. Roll each bit between your palms and flatten, then put on a lined baking tray. Warning, those little devils tend to at least double in size in my oven... #bakingpowderpower but just remember to set them well apart on the tray.

Bake for about 10 minutes, or until nicely golden. Remove the biscuits from the tray and let harden and cool. Store in an air-tight container.

Working the Magic 2: How Can You Customize?

Up to 1 dl of any dried fruit or candied peel, chopped into small bits, or chocolate chips, bits of caramel, salted or not

Cinnamon

Swap 1-2 tbsp of flour for 1-2 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)

Swap some flour for an equal volume of another flour (rye, spelt...) or oats

Mixed spice

Whatever comes to your mind and sounds yummy.

You can also decide to go for just topping them with icing (lemon juice + powder sugar)

I suppose matcha powder could also work (never tested though)

Or anything you feel like adding :) 

Enjoy your experimentations, and tell us about them!