Tetly Biscuit Thing...and the time I got overconfident and had to improvise.

So I am going to talk about that Great British Bakeoff now.

1) I couldn't make it to the viewing party cause I had a society party that ran over a little late. Although I was rooting for Kimberly, I'm happy Ruby did not win.

2) Today's is a lesson on turning lemons into lemonade. And also...maybe a lesson in overconfidence.

This post is long long overdue. Partly because I've made a lot of things since, mostly because I've been trying to avoid it. It comes down to an age old food bloggers dilemma, should I post my failures or not?

But you know what? It's just shortbread. Life goes on, and I keep cooking. More than anything this post will be a lesson in humility. And posting my 'failures'? A reminder of the dangers of overconfidence, and that you can salvage almost any bad situation. 

So here's a rundown, I made the dough and it turned out to be a beautiful shortbread dough (as you can see above). 

Just the right amount of crumble yet easy to mould. I rolled it up into a log and let it chill in the fridge over night before the party the next day. 

Took it out and it cut BEAUTIFULLY. 

Lightly scented with Tetley tea... I was really really excited. I thought this would be a fantastic biscuit. 

Now.... They went into the oven like this:

And after 15 minutes in that 180'C oven...

To my horror...

They came out like this:

What the hell happened to my beautiful dainty shortbreads??

I tried one. 

In all honesty they tastes ok. Very very buttery with a nice black tea aftertaste. 

But still totally not what I was expecting. The texture, while not unpleasant, was like a chewy feuille rather than a crumbly shortbread. 

The clock was ticking and I had to be at my meeting in 30 minutes. I couldn't bring these with me to the bake off party!

Then suddenly, a little voice at the back of my head whispered

Throw in 2 eggs and some chocolate. 

So I did. And I baked it again with fingers crossed. 

What came out was a very strange... Soft cookie. Slightly eggy and very cakey. 

By this time I had to rush off for the society meeting and completely forgot to take the....bar cookies? Bar cookies with me. 

My Flatmate got me to try them again in the morning and to my surprise... They weren't bad. The eggy taste had gone away and was replaced with a strong taste of tea. The dark chocolate chunks gave the bake just the right amount of sweetness and made it a bit more lush. It wasn't the disaster I thought it was. 

In hindsight, I must have put the full weight of butter and forgot I was halving the recipe. Moral of the story? No matter how much 'experience' you think you have? Always always ALWAYS triple check your measurements. And if things go sour, just add 2 eggs and some chocolate. 

And maybe a little bit of luck.