Country mouse heads to town. I’m off to London in a bit of a rush – people to see, places to go, tea to drink and chocolate to eat. This post will go out while I’m there. Before leaving, I need to make something for the friends I am staying with; something that can take a bit of a battering, isn’t too heavy and won’t take up too much space. Well, there is only one thing I can think of – biscuits.
I can’t make just any old biscuits of course, they are a present and need to look a little fancy. It’s time to try out the new textured rolling pin I picked up at The Big Cake Show as well as have another go at using a cookie stamp. I’ve had very little success with these before as the impression has always disappeared on baking.
I need a more robust recipe. I know who to go to; Miranda, Queen of Biscuits. I’ve made a few recipes from Miranda Gore Browne’s book Biscuit and I’ve enjoyed all of them. Once again, she hasn’t let me down; there’s a recipe for Irresistible Chocolate Biscuits, a firm biscuit suitable for fancy icing. Well I’m not going to do any icing, but the recipe is meant to produce firm biscuits, so should suit my proposes very well – that’s what I’m hoping anyway.
I’ve pretty much followed Miranda’s recipe but as I want my friend’s children to enjoy them and they aren’t going to have any sweet icing on top, I’m using milk chocolate rather than dark. I’m also adding some allspice – well why not?
Adding ⅛ tsp Cornish sea salt, ⅛ tsp ground black pepper and ¼ tsp cinnamon works well too.
Before I rush out the door and leave the oven on, I better check on those biscuits.
I was half expecting my impressions to look, er, well, not very impressive. But I am delighted to see that this time they’ve held. Well done Miranda.
Not only do the biscuits look rather good, I think, but they taste just right too. They have a good firm texture, but thankfully cannot be confused with hard tack. They have a good strong chocolate taste with a spicy undertone. The question is, will they make it all the way to London? I’ll let you know, it’s a long journey and I might get hungry.
This is how I made:
Textured and Stamped Chocolate Biscuits
- Melted 55g of 37% milk chocolate (G&B) in a large bowl over a pan of hot water.
- Removed from the heat and added 200g cubed unsalted butter.
- Creamed this together, adding 160g vanilla sugar (caster) part way though.
- Added 1 heaped tbsp golden syrup and creamed until the mixture was light and fluffy.
- Beat in an egg.
- Sifted in 350g plain flour, 50g cocoa powder (G&B) and a scant teaspoon of allspice.
- Stirred until just combined. Formed into a ball, placed in a plastic bag and put in the fridge for an hour.
- Removed from the bag and cut into two pieces. Rolled out one piece to about 3mm in depth, then cut our rounds suitable for the size of my cookie stamp.
- Stamped the rounds and placed on a couple of baking trays.
- Baked at 180℃ for 10 minutes. Removed from the oven and placed the biscuits on a wire rack to cool.
- Meanwhile, rolled the other dough half to about the same thickness using my textured rolling pin to do the last roll, pressing down quite firmly as I did so.
- Cut out heart and rabbit shapes and baked as before.
Other Fun Biscuit Recipes You Might Like
Sharing
As these have now become my favourite biscuits for stamping, I am entering them into The Biscuit Barrel over at I’d Much Rather Bake Than … Laura has chosen favourites as this month’s theme.
I’m also sending them off to Javelin Warrior’s Made with Love Mondays as they were entirely made from scratch.
Shaheen says
I’m impressed and you’ve inspired me to dig out my rolling pin with pattern that I picked up when I was in France many years back (maybe too Xmassy though – will have to look) Anyway, this def. make biccies look more appealing. Gonna so start doing this. Thanks for inspiring.
belleau kitchen says
These are just so impressive. I bet you’re so pleased with the way they turned out. Worth purchasing a stamp I believe as I find it so hard to take interesting photos of biscuits but these look great.
Vohn's Vittles says
Fantastic! They look so professional! x
Janice Pattie says
They look really good, worth persevering.
The Caked Crusader says
Wow – your impressions stayed so crisp after baking – nice job!
Jacqueline Meldrum says
I love them and desperately want one this minute.
Rosita Vargas says
Hermosas galletas con linda textura quiero ese rodillo,me gusta tu blog ,abrazos
Tina @ The Spicy Pear says
These chocolate biscuits look tasty, especially with the impressions. I hope your friend enjoyed them.
Aunt Bee says
They look so great!!!!!
London Unattached says
those look lovely. BUT. We met up in london – I don’t remember ANY biscuits;)
Kate Glutenfreealchemist says
These are beautiful Choclette. I love the pattern made by the textured rolling pin. So simple yet so effective. I am sure they were adored by your friends (although I think if I were them I would have saved a couple for the mantle piece)!
The Kitchenmaid says
I loved these so much when I saw them on Facebook, so beautiful! Very envious of your London jaunt, sigh…
Javelin Warrior says
I hope the cookies made it in one piece, Choclette! These are cute and perfect for kids or guests. Or even as favors at a party. The impressions look like they baked in marvelously…
Katharine says
These are lovely – they look professional yet homemade at the same time. Lucky friends – I hope they enjoyed them! Hope you had a good time too.
Kecia'sFlavor Breakthrough says
I love these little biscuits! The stamps are adorable!
JO BRYAN says
How cool I need me some of these stamps and the biscuits too!! What brand are the stamps please?
Latoyah says
These look so cool! Love it, definitely need to give it a go!
Louise Smith says
Mmm, these look delicious. I’ve just got into biscuit making and needed some inspiration 😀
Hayley UK says
What a simple but very effective idea. I will definitely be getting one of the stamps.
Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy says
I love these – very creative. My biscuits always look so boring.
Choclette says
Biscuits never look boring Dannii 😉
Laura Denman says
That book is fantastic isn’t it? I haven’t done many recipes from it but I periodically love to look through it and imagine all the occasions that would be perfect for my favourite ones. You’ve made these biscuits look so pretty and thank you for doing the test for this particular recipe for me! I’ll know where to go straight away now when I finally get hold of a biscuit stamp.
Choclette says
It’s a lovely book indeed Laura and I was so pleased with the way these biscuits worked. I look forward to seeing how you get on with your stamp. I’ve just entered this to your Biscuit Barrel challenge.
manu says
Oh these are so cool…
Have a nice day
Choclette says
Thanks Manu