It’s that time of year again, the Great British Bake Off is back on our screens and inspiring our baking. I have been set the challenge by one of my followers to this year show you each week how to make some dairy free versions of whats being baked on GBBO. I never say no to a challenge so for week one I’m going all technical with the wagon wheel technical challenge.

This is not an easy recipe, although I have used ready made marshmallows rather than making marshmallow from scratch, which simplifies it a bit. This is for the simple reason that marshmallow needs to be used so quickly once its ready, I wouldn’t have time to take the photos to show everyone what to do. I am however planning on adding a homemade marshmallow recipe to the blog later on so keep your eyes peeled.

Ingredients

 

For the biscuits:

8oz self raising flour

4oz caster sugar

4oz dairy free spread (I recommend the hard stork for this recipe)

1 egg

1tsp vanilla essence

For the filling:

150g of marshmallows (Be careful to ensure your marshmallows don’t have soya in them, if like my daughter you have an allergy)

12tsp raspberry jam

For the coating:

100g bar of moo free milk chocolate

100g bar of Tesco ivory coast dark chocolate

(again I have chosen these dairy free chocolates to avoid Soya)

 

Method:

 

For the biscuits:

Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl and rub in the fat till it looks like breadcrumbs

In a jug, beat the egg and add the tsp of vanilla essence

Mix together, then form into a dough

Roll out thinly and cut into rounds. I used a cutter 7cm in diameter to get 24 biscuits.

Place on a greased baking tray and bake in the oven at 180°C for 10-12 mins. They are ready when the edges are starting to darken in colour.

For the filling:

The filling is best put inside the biscuits while still warm as it gives you a little extra time to do the marshmallow.

Heat the marshmallows in a pan stirring constantly.  As soon as all the marshmallows have melted, transfer the mix into a piping bag and pipe a circle of marshmallow in the centre of half the biscuits.  If you heat too long the marshmallow will lose its texture. Try to do this with speed as the marshmallow will set again very quickly.

I strongly recommend using a disposable piping bag for this, marshmallow makes quite a mess.

On the other half of the biscuits, spread a tsp of raspberry jam.

Then sandwich the two sides together and allow to cool fully. The longer you can let them set, the easier the chocolate coating will be.

For the coating:

Melt the two types of chocolate together in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water.

Once the chocolate is smooth remove from the heat.

Coat the bottom of your biscuit sandwiches in chocolate first.

Then cover the rest of the sandwich with the chocolate mixture. I found the easiest way to do this was by placing a cooling rack over a mixing bowl. I then poured 2tsp of the chocolate mix onto each biscuit, before using a palette knife to spread the mixture over the top and let the chocolate run down the sides. I then neatened up the sides with the palette knife and added a little more chocolate if necessary. 

Use the palette knife to transfer to a cooling rack and leave in a cool place until the chocolate is completely set.

Do not be tempted to put them in the fridge. You may cause the chocolate to bloom, which is where the sugar separates out and leaves a white residue on the top of the chocolate.

 

Variations

If you have an egg allergy, you can replace this enriched biscuit with the basic biscuit recipe also on this blog. The biscuit will have a shorter, more crunchy texture but will still taste good.

If you are vegan, you can also use the basic biscuit recipe and then there are recipes out there for how to make vegan marshmallow, so just substitute them in.

 

I hope you have fun having a go at this recipe. It is a technical challenge but if you take your time and take it step by step, the end result tastes great. Let me know how you get on in the comments below.