pina colada biscuits (cookies)

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk

Blimey! Another cocktail-based-bake and another easy one!

Spurred on by how well received the old-fashioned cocktail cake was, I decided to go for another cocktail-based recipe. Also, while I admit I love spending hours over a cake, the quick-and-easy recipes are great to have on hand too, especially on a Tuesday post-work need-tea-and-biscuit sort of time.

So I forgo the usual babble in favour of getting down to the recipe, aiding in a earlier cup of tea and mildly- alcoholic-biscuit-joy for you. Aren't I lovely?

By the way, a biscuit in the UK is not something your pour gravy over or eat like a bread roll, it's a cookie. Though in the UK, "cookie" denotes the soft and squidgy cookie, not the firm and snappy cookie. But I digress.


Lydia's Super Easy Pina Colada Biscuits (about 30-35)
Ingredients
Coconut Biscuits
225g (8 oz, 1 cup) unsalted butter or margarine (I used Stork)
125g (scant ½ cup) sugar
250g self-raising flour (1⅔ cup, if you don't have it, use plain flour plus 2 tsp baking powder)
¼ tsp salt
50g (about ½ cup) dessicated coconut

Pina colada frosting/glaze
There's actually 2 kinds of glazes / frosting here. The written ingredients are for the thinner glaze pictured at the very top and bottom of this recipe, the thicker one (photo just below) will need twice the amount of caster sugar, pineapple juice, rum and coconut described below (but roughly the same about of icing / powdered sugar).

60g (¼ cup) caster sugar
75ml (scant ¼ cup) pineapple juice
2 tbsp rum (coconut rum, if you have it)
30g (5 tbsp) dessicated coconut
about 180g (1 cup) icing sugar

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk

Method
For the cookies, heat the oven to 160°C (electric/fan oven, 180°C gas oven, gas mark 4, 320-350°F)

Beat together the butter and the sugar.

Add the flour, salt and coconut, and stir / beat in until just combined.

Spoon or pipe (the batter is quite stiff though!) onto baking trays slightly smaller than a ping pong ball.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes until lightly golden.


For the frosting, combine the caster sugar, pineapple juice and rum in a pan and bring to the boil.

Bring to the boil over a medium heat and boil for about a minute to reduce slightly (2-3 minutes if you want the thicker frosting in the photo just above the "methods" section), stirring occasionally.

Stir in the dessicated coconut, then allow to cool slightly before stirring in the icing sugar. The amount you need will vary depending on how thick your syrup got and how thick you want your final frosting / glaze to be. I needed 14 tbsp to get to the thick frosting consistency sort of like lumpy yoghurt, and the thinner glaze surprisingly also needed roughly that amount (the syrup was far far thinner in that version).

Spoon or pipe over the biscuits and allow to set before digging in.


nom!

© Lydia, punge.blogspot.co.uk