Great British Bake Off finalist Miranda Gore Brown’s most memorable contributions to the show were her beautiful iced biscuits. Therefore it comes as no surprise her new book should be a tribute to everyone’s favourite dippin’, dunkin’, crunchin’ versatile baked treat called simply: Biscuit.
Celebrating the launch of Miranda’s book alongside their kMix Boutique range, kitchen gadget supremos Kenwood invited me to bake some biscuits with Miranda at West End cookery school L’Atelier des Chefs. Crumbs!
Following the success of the kMix Boutique Breakfast range of toasters and kettles, Kenwood will be launching further Boutique items from September this year. They’re not in the shops yet but we had chance to inspect the M&M coloured gizmos up close.
The hand held items in the range will be a stainless steel 700w Triblade hand blenders with 5 speeds and a durable ergonomic 400w hand mixer with beaters and dough hooks that attach to the main body for easy storage.
Free standing items are the sturdy 800w free standing blender with pouring tip and programs to blend soups, dips, cold drinks and crush ice cubes and everyone’s favourite, the iconic kMix boutique stand mixer with K beater, dough hook, whisk and flexible beater for all free standing baking jobs.
After nibbling Miranda’s wonderfully chewy chocolate cookies, it was time to don aprons and get busy in the kitchen.
Our task was to make a savoury biscuit from Miranda’s book; the tasty pesto and pine nut pieces.
Helen of Fuss Free Flavours (pictured above right) has a kMix Firecracker at home and already knew her way round the Kenwood stand mixer’s features:
- The fold function can gently mix ingredients to the biscuit dough in alternating directions
- Auto-stop mode which activates when the head is lifted
- Ergonomic controls that are easy to access from the front whilst using it
Miranda’s reasons for loving biscuits include:
- They’re the perfect bake for a busy mum – mix double batches of dough and half can be frozen for another occasion.
- Individual biscuit dough portions can be frozen either in slices or ice cream scooped balls enabling you to bake a handful of biscuits at any time.
- Biscuits from frozen dough usually only requires a couple of extra minutes in the oven making instantly baked batches a breeze.
- Cooked biscuits are simple to store too – in a tin or sealed tub.
Miranda also shared a couple of nifty biscuit tricks that I will be using from now on:
- Quickly soften your butter by soaking cubes of it in a bowl of warm water – sounds weird but it works (this tip came directly from Mary Berry during the final stages of the Bake Off when the finalists had more time to chat with the presenters and judges).
- If you bake cooked biscuits for just 2 minutes in a warm oven people will think you’ve just made them. Fabulous plan!
We ended up taking our logs of dough home to bake but were able to try some ready baked pesto and pine nut pieces Miranda had, Blue Peter style, “baked earlier”.
With thanks to Kenwood, L’Atelier des Chefs and Miranda Gore Brown.
The new items in the kMix boutique range will be available from September 2012.
Becs @ Lay the table says
Oh wow, the new kMix range is GORGEOUS! I have a kMix hand mixer in cream (it has to fix in with the colour scheme apparently…). Pesto and pine nut sounds gorgeous, will add Miranda’s book to my list!
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
You know I may end up redecorating my kitchen with the colour of these gadgets in mind…!
Happy Cook / Finla says
The mixies look so colorfull, till now i have been wanting to buy a Kitchen Aid but now seeing these i am doubting as these look so beautiful too.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
KitchenAids look pretty but the reports I hear are that kMix is more reliable over time. I don’t have a KitchenAid stand mixer but my KitchenAid blender always sounds like it’s in pain whenever I try blending anything. Not a very powerful motor at all.
Kelly says
Love those colors! Wish I could trade in my red kmix hand mixer for one of those snazzy orange ones.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
I can’t make my mind up which colour I like most… kermit green? smurf blue?
Hannah says
Or lordy! All those new Kenwood pieces look sooo cute. I’m loving the yellow hand-mixer. Want it!!!
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Having used the kMix hand mixer I can say it was very comfortable to hold with a non-slip rubber handle. And it out performed Kenwood and Kitchen Aid stand mixers in whipping up egg whites at lightning speed!
Rosa says
Lovely colors!
Those biscuits must be delicious.
Cheers,
Rosa
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
They came out sort of like sables. Very cheesy!
Fuss Free Helen says
They are objects of desire aren’t they? Very modern but retro at the same time. Love the lines on them.
Jeanne @ CookSister! says
OMG I am in love with that striped KMix!!
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Gorgeous isn’t it. I am very envious of Helen having one!