The Great British Bake Off Series 7 Episode 8 2016 was Tudor week. The bakers had to bake recipes from the Tudor times and for the technical challenge set my one of the judges, Paul Hollywood was jumbles knot biscuits which were a favourite Tudor time treat. This recipe is the exact recipe on The Great British Bake Off recipe.

The recipe is supposed to make 12 biscuits, half weighing 65 grams each and the other half weighing 85 grams each but the numbers do not add up. I ended up with five 65 gram dough balls and three 85 gram dough balls with 60 grams remaining so it is actually impossible to come up with 12 biscuits which weigh the amount it says they weigh in the recipe.

I did not put the biscuit dough in the fridge like the recipe suggested because there was no need to, the jumbles tudor knot biscuit dough is firm enough and it will not lose its shape when baked

I also noticed that the tudor jumbles knot biscuits cook for the same amount of time , 20-25 minutes, so no need to separate them based on cooking time. The biscuits taste great though and they are worth making.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 375g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• ½ tsp ground aniseed
• ½ tsp ground mace
• 60g unsalted butter, cubed
• 150g caster sugar
• finely grated zest 1 large or 2 small lemons
• 3 medium eggs, lightly beaten

To glaze

• 1 medium egg, lightly beaten
• caster sugar, for sprinkling

Method

• Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Place the caraway seeds in a pestle & mortar and grind to a powder. Sieve the caraway, flour aniseed and mace together into a bowl.
• Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar and lemon zest. Add the eggs and bring the mixture together to form a soft dough.
• Divide the dough into 6 balls weighing 65g and 6 balls weighing 85g ( you might have a little left over). Place the dough balls on one of the baking sheets, cover with clingfilm and chill for 30 mins.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Knead the 6 pieces of dough (weighing 65g) on a lightly floured surface and roll using your fingertips into a 30cm rope. Knot into double knots.
• Shape the remaining 6 pieces of dough (weighing 85g) into Celtic knots.
• Using a palette knife, carefully lift the dough shapes onto the lined baking trays, spacing them slightly apart. The double knots will take an extra 5 – 10 minutes longer to bake than the Celtic knots, so don’t mix shapes on the baking sheets. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with caster sugar.
• Bake the Celtic knots for 15 – 20 minutes, until golden brown and the double knots for 20 – 25 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.