Mrs Bean's Ginger Apple Snaps

As a result of moving into a new flat with no wifi, I've been driven to entertaining myself with dvds, specifically Wes Anderson films. My Wes Anderson binge included one of my all time favourite films, Fantastic Mr Fox. There's a lovely scene in the movie where young foxes Ash and Kristofferson break into Mr Bean's kitchen and gobble a fresh plate of Mrs Bean's famous nutmeg ginger apple snaps. Any Anderson fan will know how much we wish we could step into one of his movies, and a quick internet search later, I discovered a recipe brought from the screen so I could bake these for myself. You can find the original recipe here, but I have adapted it to metric measurements.

What you will need: 250g softened butter / 2 tbsp mollasses / 6 tbsp brown sugar / 100g white sugar / 1 tsp vanilla extract / 1 pinch ground cloves / 1 tsp grated nutmeg / 2 tsp ground cinnamon / 2 tsp ground ginger / 3 tbsp grated fresh ginger / 500g all purpose flour / 2 tsp cornstarch / 1 pinch salt / 4 gala apples / 100g coarse sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 170 degrees calcius.

Cream the butter in a deep bowl until it is light coloured. Add the mollasses, brown sugar, white sugar, spices, fresh ginger and vanilla extract and blend together well. 

Sift the flour, cornstarch and salt together and add to the butter mix in three batches.

Roll dough into 1-2 tbsp sized balls and flatten on a baking tray. 

Slice the apples thinly (I was crap at this) and press into each biscuit, before sprinkling the coarse sugar all over.

Place baking tray into the center of the oven and time for 12-15 minutes, until the biscuit edges are golden. 

Allow to cool and keep wrapped in cellophane. 

Keep watch of hungry foxes!