Brandy Snaps

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Two heavy baking trays
• •Baking parchment
• •Small heavy-bottomed saucepan
• •Palette knife
• •Wooden spoon with a smooth handle (for shaping)
• •Piping bag with a plain nozzle

Instructions

1. 1

   Melt the base

   Set the oven to 180C/160C fan and line two baking trays with parchment. Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup into a small heavy pan and set it over a low heat. Don't stir. Just let it melt at its own pace, swirling the pan now and then. When the butter has disappeared and the sugar has dissolved into a glossy amber pool that smells faintly of toffee, take it off the heat. The kitchen will smell like Christmas before it's even December.

   Weigh the syrup straight into the pan on the scales. Greasing the spoon is fine, but the pan is easier and there's nothing to wash.
2. 2

   Add the dry and the brandy

   Let the pan cool for two or three minutes, just so the flour doesn't seize when it goes in. Sift in the flour and ginger, add the lemon zest, the salt and the teaspoon of brandy. Stir until you have a smooth, slack, glossy batter the colour of dark honey. That's it. There's nothing else to do at this stage.

3. 3

   Drop and space them

   Drop teaspoons of batter onto the lined trays, leaving a generous distance between each one. They spread enormously. Four to a tray is plenty, six at the absolute most. Crowd them and they'll fuse into one large lacy disc, which is its own kind of pudding but not what we're after.

   Bake one tray at a time. Brandy snaps need watching, and they need to come out of the oven in batches so you can shape them while they're still pliable.
4. 4

   Bake until lacy

   Bake for eight to ten minutes. They'll bubble furiously, then settle into thin, lace-edged discs the colour of dark amber. You're looking for an even, deep golden brown, with the tiny holes of the lace clearly visible right through the middle. Pale ones will be chewy. Dark ones will be bitter. Trust your nose: when the toffee smell deepens and just starts to sharpen, they're ready.

5. 5

   Rest and roll

   Take the tray out and let the biscuits sit for thirty seconds, no longer. You want them set enough to lift but still floppy and warm. Slide a palette knife under one and drape it over the greased handle of a wooden spoon, pressing the seam gently. It will stiffen in seconds. Slide it off and start the next. If the biscuits on the tray firm up before you get to them, slip the tray back in the oven for fifteen seconds to soften them again. The oven is your friend here.

   A wooden spoon handle gives you the classic narrow tube. The handle of a rolling pin gives you wider ones, better for piping cream into. Both are right. Your kitchen, your rules.
6. 6

   Whip the cream

   Whip the double cream with the icing sugar and the tablespoon of brandy until it holds soft peaks. Not stiff. You want it to flop slightly off the spoon. Stiff cream piped into a brittle tube will crack the biscuit before anyone gets a chance to bite into it.

7. 7

   Fill and serve

   Fill the tubes only at the last minute, or as close to it as you can manage. Spoon the cream into a piping bag and pipe it generously into both ends of each brandy snap so the cream meets in the middle. Pile them onto a plate and bring them out before the biscuits have any chance to soften. The first bite should shatter, then give way to cold cream and the warm hum of brandy. There are few better things to put in front of someone at the end of a winter dinner.

Chef Tips

• •Make the batter once and you'll never need a recipe again. It's equal weights of butter, sugar, syrup and flour. The proportions are friendly, and once you've got the rhythm of dropping, baking, and rolling, you can do the whole lot in under an hour.
• •Bake one tray at a time. I know it's tempting to put both in at once, but the second tray will firm up before you've finished rolling the first, and you'll be wrestling with biscuits that don't want to bend. Patience here pays off.
• •Empty brandy snaps keep beautifully in an airtight tin for three or four days. Filled ones don't keep at all. The cream softens the biscuit within an hour and you lose the whole point of them. Fill at the last minute, always.
• •If a biscuit cracks while you're rolling it, eat it. Cook's privilege. There's no recipe in the world that doesn't have a few cook's privileges built in.

Advance Preparation

• •The unfilled brandy snaps can be made up to three days ahead and stored in an airtight tin in a cool, dry place. Damp is their enemy. A tin lid that closes properly is more important than anything fancy.
• •The brandy cream can be whipped a few hours ahead and kept covered in the fridge. Give it a gentle stir before piping in case it has stiffened.
• •Don't be tempted to fill them in advance. The biscuit goes from crisp to soggy within the hour, and what makes brandy snaps worth the effort is the moment they break under your teeth.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 35g)