A chef who’s now long forgotten this is TV celebrity chef Philip Harben’s recipe for Langues de Chat biscuits, first published in 1955.
In 1946 Philip Harben held the honour of presenting the first ever televised cookery show, preparing lobster vol-au-vents in ten minutes flat.
The show, Cookery, ran from 1946 to 1951, followed by Cookery Lesson, which he co-presented with Marguerite Patten, and finally What’s Cooking which first aired in 1956.
Langues de Chat biscuits
From 1955 the definitive Philip Harben recipe for these delicate biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 oz butter or margarine
- 2 oz caster sugar
- grated rind of 1/2 a lemon
- whites only of two eggs
- 3 oz of plain or self-raising flour
Instructions
- Utensils
- A forcing bag with 1/4 inch plain pipe
- Oven
- Medium hot
- Cream the butter or margarine and sugar together and add the grated lemon rind.
- Add the unbeaten egg whites in four instalments, beating for at least half a minute after each addition.
- Carefully work in the flour, sieving it first.
- Put the resulting mixture into the forcing bag fitted with a 1/4 inch plain pipe and onto a well greased baking sheet pipe out two-and-a-half to three inch lengths with at least half an inch clear between each.
- Put the baking sheet into the oven and look at the biscuits after five minutes.
- They started like little sausages, but they are by now flattened out and the outside rims may be beginning to brown.
- As soon as the edges are well browned, with the middles still pale, they are done.
See more about Philip Harben here
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