Bourbon Cinnamon Brandy Snaps

Here’s a throwback to past holiday seasons. Brandy Snaps.

These used to be on offer a lot in my family home back in the 80s. I think my Dad was a bit if a fan. Turns out my good friend Andrew is too, because just before Christmas he was lamenting over not having had any in a while… which got me to thinking.

Its been a good 20 years since I made these, so about time! I filled them with cinnamon whipped cream with a healthy slug of bourbon. They are so great.

Remember that home made brandy snaps are far more delicate than commercial ones, so they soften very rapidly – after about 45 minutes. I forgot this the first time I served these and wound up with a (kind of wonderful) bourbon cream brandy snap trifle. Good both ways, I guess!

Brandy Snaps have a very simple mixture and bake up in about 5 minutes per tray.

The trickiest part of the whole exercise is rolling them around a mould while they are still hot, so that they can set in the traditional canoli cylinder shape.

You need a little patience to figure out how hot is too hot to handle, and how cool the Brandy Snaps can get before they won’t roll, but they really are very easy to do – and the best part is, if you break one or two in the process, there is all this caramelly goodness to snack on!

I find the best way to handle the brandy snaps is to let them cool for about 45 seconds on the tray, then attempt to lift the brownest cookie by the edge with a broad bladed knife. If it lifts easily, without stretching, you are ready to roll. Have a wooden spoon handle ready (about 1.5cm to 2.5 cm in diameter), flip the cookie over and roll it, bottom side out, over the spoon handle (it doesn’t actually matter which side faces out, but I find that the Brandy Snaps look lacier if the bottom side faces out. The photo above shows the top side facing out). For the first two cookies, I use my hand (which is much cooler than the cookie) to encourage it to set. The first two cookies off the sheet always take a little longer to set than the last two. You can set up the baking process so that you have two trays going at the same time: while you are rolling tray 1, you are baking tray 2.

The best thing about these little treats is that they keep for a month in an airtight container, so if you have a big batch, you can whip up some cream and fill some on demand. Perfect for a quick dessert when friends drop by.

Bourbon Cinnamon Brandy Snaps

ingredients

60g golden syrup
90g butter
1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 tsp ground ginger

1/3 cup flour

to serve

150mL cream

1 tsp cinnamon

15mL bourbon

mixing

Combine the golden syrup, butter, brown sugar and ginger in a small saucepan and combine over a medium heat, stirring all the time until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat, add the sifted flour and mix well.

Lightly grease two baking trays. Working one tray at a time, drop three or four scant teaspoonfuls of mixture onto the trays, leaving ample room for the brandy snap mixture to spread.

Bake for five minutes, one tray at a time, at 180 degrees Celsius. The baking time might be a little more or less depending on your oven. The goal is to get a golden colour, rather than a dark caramel colour.

When the brandy snaps are golden and lacy, remove the tray from the oven and let the brandy snaps cool for about a minute until they are firm enough to handle. In the meantime you can put the other tray in the oven and bake for five minutes. Then, working one brandy snap at a time, lift from the tray, flip over and roll into cylinders using a wooden spoon handle (or other cylindrical form) as a mould. Let each brandy snap set for a few seconds before removing from the mould. Set on a wire rack to cool, and repeat with the remaining brandy snaps. Spoon four more portions of the mixture onto the tray you have just emptied. The rolling and replenishing process will take just a little less time than the baking time for the next tray of brandy snaps.

Repeat this process until all the mixture is used.

Enjoy!xxx

Bourbon Cinnamon Brandy Snaps