Bitter Sweet Recipes

Sour Cherry Cat Tongue Biscuit

Langues de Chat or Cats tongue biscuits are a classic and elegant french biscuit. These crispy buttery biscuits are delicious with coffee, and very easy to whip up at a moments notice. They are also commonly served with desserts such as ice creams and mousses, but I just like to eat them plain.

I was cleaning out my pantry the other day and found a little bottle or sour cherry essence I picked up at a european deli a while back and wasnt sure what to do with it so I thought I would have a go at making some sour cherry biscuits. This recipe takes on variations well as discussed below and my sour cherry version came out beautifully. They had a slight red hue with a subtle cherry flavour, very delicious and something a little different.
The principal recipe is of the traditional plain biscuit, however, I have suggested some variations at the bottom of this post.

This recipe will make about 30-35 biscuits, however, it doubles well if you would like a larger batch. You need to be certain to use a good quality baking paper to cook these biscuits on or you may have difficulty getting them off the tray without breaking the biscuit (like I did).

INGREDIENTS

40 grams Butter (softened)
60 grams Icing Sugar (Powdered Sugar) Sifted
1 egg white
60 grams plain flour
1 teaspoon of Orange Zest

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celcius.
Prepare a baking tray lined with good quality baking paper.

Beat the Butter and Sugar until it is pale coloured and fluffy.
Mix in the egg white, flour and zest until just combined.

Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
Pipe onto the prepared tray in a curved L shape to the desired size. Make sure you leave room for spreading between each biscuit.
Bake in the preheated oven for 4-6 minutes.
I recommend you keep a close eye on these ones as they bake! They are ready when the edges a coloured slightly and they have a chewy center.

Plain Langues de Chat

VARIATIONS

You can make many delicious flavour and decorative variations on this plain biscuit.
Try substituting the orange zest for;
lemon, mandarine or lime zest,
1/2 teaspoon sour cherry essence, or
1/2 teaspoon of rose water, or
1/4 teaspoon almond essence, or
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence, or
1/4 teaspoon coconut essence.

Or dipping the completed biscuit in;
melted white chocolate then crushed pistachios, or
melted dark chocolate then crushed macadamias.

You really cant go past a piece of buttery, flaky brioche smothered with home made jam on a cold and rainy morning with your cup of tea.
The rich aroma of this eggy French bread really warms up my kitchen and the irresistible scent makes the neighbours very jealous.

Brioche has a reputation for being fiddly, time consuming and difficult but I recently came across a recipe in an old French cookbook that turned out a perfectly pillowy loaf with a browned crust and was surprising quite easy with no special pots, pans or mixers required. I have altered it slightly but it still produces an absolutely authentic tasting loaf. YUM!

This recipe has been scaled down to make a small loaf or individual servings suitable for around 4 people. It is important to try to eat it the same day that you bake it, as it will stale quite fast due to the lack of preserving agents. However, it can be toasted or made into French toast quite successfully the next day.

This recipe takes around 3 hours from start to finish (or overnight)
- 30 mins mixing, kneading and shaping
- 2.5 hours prooving time (or overnight)

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups plain flour
30 grams white sugar (if you like a sweeter brioche add 40g)
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of instant dry yeast
2 large fresh eggs (or 3 small fresh eggs)
50 grams butter chilled and chopped into cubes

METHOD

In a medium sized mixing bowl combine dry ingredients. Mix with a fork and make a well. Add the eggs to the well and mix in breaking up the yolks and starting from the center gradually incorporating the dry ingredients. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for around 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Flatten out the dough slightly and place the chopped butter in the center, fold the dough over the butter and knead again for another 10-15 minutes.
This step can be very messy… please resist the urge to add more flour to the dough… just keep kneading I promise that the butter will go in eventually.

When the butter is fully incorporated you will be left with a shiny ball of dough, it should not be overly sticky.

Place your dough in a bowl in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.

(If its a cold day my tip for proving dough is to place it in a smaller bowl which is inside a larger bowl filled with warm water. I then put a plastic shopping bag over the top and drape a tea towel on top of it all. This creates the perfect warm dark and damp place for the yeast to grow)

Punch the dough down and roll out in a square with the same width as your pan
roll up the square and place into the buttered pan. Place this in a warm spot for another hour for its second prooving. (if you are preparing this the night before for breakfast/brunch the next day, you can, at this stage place the dough covered in the fridge, it will rise very slowly in the fridge over night. Half an hour before cooking allow the dough to rise in a warm place)

Brush with a little milk and cook in a preheated 180 degree celcius oven for about 15 minutes or until browned and cooked.

Brioche is delicious straight out of the oven, my favourite way to eat it is sliced and spread with danish fetta drizzled with honey!  might sound strange but try it you will be hooked!

VARIATIONS

This dough can also be used to make a croissant shape… while it will not make an authentic croissant its still pretty close with the buttery flakiness and the dough is much easier to make than traditional croissant puff!

Brioche dough can be used to make a variety of sweet pastry treats… you can fold all sorts of fillings into a pocket in the dough such as a good quality dark chocolate, a chunky fruit preserve, or berries in sauce.

You can also make a more savoury brioche if you wish, just cut the sugar down to 5g (you still need some to act as ‘food’ for the yeast) and increase the salt to a large pinch.
You can also stray from the traditional recipe and add cheese, herb, bacon or any extra ingredients at the final stages for a more interesting dough.

However, I strongly suggest making a batch of traditional plain brioche before you embark on making variations.