Brandy snaps are a delicious crunchy cylinder shaped snack but here’s the thing, making them from scratch me realise they do not actually contain any brandy! So avoiding them before the age of 18 for that reason was not a very good idea, making them homemade makes up for lost time. The brandy part is because you actually brand the mix to shape them into the cylinder shape, some people add a brandy cream but that is optional. We are going for a lemon vanilla one, truly outstanding!
The other good news is the ingredients are super simple and fairly common, the only tricky part is the branding bit where you have to get it right so not to burn yourself or let them cool too quickly.
Start off by getting a large saucepan and adding the butter, golden syrup and light brown sugar. Melt this over a very low heat stirring to encourage the better to melt. Do not boil it, keep the heat low to melt and merge it all together, once the sugar has dissolved and you have a smooth brown mixture that is enough!
Remove from the heat and add in the flour, lemon juice and ginger. This will be thick at first but keep stirring until it has merged and is lump free, a whisk may help here.
Get a baking tray and line with baking parchment. Take heaped teaspoonfuls of the mixture and drop onto the baking parchment. It spreads a lot when it bakes so you need to spread them apart and may be limited to two at a time. I found having a second tray lined was best for both the rolling later so you aren’t trying to do too much at once and so that they can fit on the tray. Just keep rotating them if you wish to do that!
Bake in an oven pre-heated to 160fan/180c/350f for approximately 5-6 minutes. When they are starting to bubble they are nearly there, but get them a deeper golden brown, but not burnt, if you do not bake them long enough they don’t hold their shape so well. I found 6 minutes worked perfectly, but do watch them closely so they do not burn.
Once they are done, take out the oven and let them cool for 90 seconds, or until you can touch them but they are still warm and flexible, if you leave this step too late they will cool and firm up / not roll! Wrap the warm disc around the handle of a wooden spoon and rest on the seam and allow to cool. Repeat with any remaining discs as necessary. To make a bowl simply drape the warm disc over the bottom of a glass and allow to cool before removing the baking parchment.
To fill it, pipe it with some whipped cream. We whipped our cream in a bowl with an electric whisk until soft peaks formed, then added the seeds of a vanilla pod and a good tablespoon of lemon curd, whisking again until blended through. Serve inside the rolled snaps or dollop inside a nest with some strawberries – stonking!