Instalment number two of this weeks' Lakeland product reviews! And this time I got to play with gingerbread dough and stamps!
This is the Say It With Biscuits Kit. Three silicone stamps, the wooden 'handle' that they fit on to for easy stamping, a cutter, recipe booklet and 6 very sweet gift boxes should you be able to bring yourself to give them away! It all comes packaged in a cute box so would make a great present for a baker.
I used my own gingerbread dough recipe, but the booklet does contain some lovely looking recipes. It includes a sable (basic) biscuit recipe, that you could easily flavour using a splash of vanilla or almond extract, or grated zest of lemon or orange for further biscuit flavours. There is also a ginger biscuit recipe, a chocolate one (that will definitely get tried in this house, chocoholics? Us?!), and recipes for oat and raisin, choc chip, and even a savoury cheese one. There are also ideas and recipes for filling the biscuits, should you wish to sandwich them together. So definitely lots of ideas to get you started!
If you have your own favourite biscuit recipe you could also use that of course, but it needs to be a dough which can firm up when chilled, so the pattern doesn't spread when baked. The instructions recommend chilling the dough before baking, but I'd also recommend chilling after cutting the biscuits for at least 20 minutes, especially if you are re-rolling the scraps of dough after the initial lot of cutting, as the warmth of your hands will warm the dough up too.
Using the stampers is easy. They fit snugly onto the wooden handle, and you can use this to push the stamper into the dough. I would say you need to push it quite firmly into the dough to make a good deep imprint. You need to bake them for the time according to the recipe, so check that for details.
You can see I have two sizes of biscuits on the picture above. The larger ones are made using the cookie cutter that comes with the kit, but I also had a go with a smaller round cutter I have to see what it would look like. I think they both look great. And if you were feeling generous and were going to give more than one away as a gift, I think the mixture of sizes would look lovely in a kilner jar with a ribbon tied around it.
And if you fancy a bit of extra indulgence, how about sandwiching two together with milk chocolate ganache? Mmmmmmm!!
I haven't tried it yet, but I would also imagine that you could use these stampers with sugarpaste to make toppers for cupcakes, you would probably just need to add a smear of vegetable fat like Trex to the silicone stamper before using it to make sure it didn't stick.
The stampers have three different patterns: hearts, flowers and a Made For You stamp. They could be used on their own or together, and would make a good gift for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and birthdays....and many other occasions in between. If you like to make homemade gifts and are handy in the kitchen, this could be a good investment for you. With so many variations of flavours, stampers, shapes, and how you could package them you could produce a different gift every time!
You can buy the kit here.
Although I was given the kit for free to review, all the views and opinions expressed are my own.
