Iced Dark Chocolate Biscuits
This is an iced biscuit recipe that I made many times as a child. If you can remember to remove the butter from the fridge to soften, then you can make this simply in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
This week I’m sharing this perfect biscuit recipe. It is a master recipe and in this version I have added fine dark cocoa powder for a rich savoury note, but you could add vanilla, or lemon, or spices. At the heart of the good home cook’s arsenal should always be a few master recipes. Recipes that are so easy they require no strenuous thought or pre planning. Recipes which can be adapted to the ingredients on hand, the seasons, or the mood of the day. This was precisely how my mother cooked expertly recreating her ice cream, meringues, or jellies using her master recipes, which were so tried and tested that she could simply bring the ingredients together. This is just such a recipe.
In the aftermath of the Easter holidays baking is a welcome distraction; an easy task with simple steps and an end result. The holidays were a glorious chaos but I am looking forward to a return to routine and a chance to work. After just such a holiday there is an inevitable back log of tasks and commitments and a temptation to tackle everything at once. If you are looking for a gentle start this might be just the calming bake for you too. No mixer required; if you can plan ahead and soften the butter at room temperature first. No wet and dry ingredients required, just butter, sugar and flour transformed into a crumbly and perfect biscuit.
Recipe of the Week
Iced Dark Chocolate Biscuits
makes 14 small biscuits
115g unsalted butter
50g caster sugar
115g self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
30g fine dark cocoa powder
for the icing
100g icing sugar
Preheat the oven to 180C (fan oven).
Soften the butter, remove from the fridge before cooking and you can beat in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Or add to a mixer and blend until light and creamy. Add the sugar and continue to mix. Next sift in the cocoa powder, flour and pinch of salt then combine. The mixture will quickly form a biscuit dough, you don’t want to over mix. Once you have chocolatey breadcrumbs, bring together into a dough with clean hands.
Take two lined baking sheets and form the dough into small walnut size balls, spread out across the two trays. Wet a fork and press the ball shaped dough down, to leave a fork imprint on the top and to flatten the biscuit. Cook in the hot oven for 10 minutes, or until cooked. The biscuits are soft when they leave the hot oven, so give them 5 minutes and then carefully transfer to a baking rack to cool and firm up, longer if needed.
To make a quick icing mix icing sugar with water, add 1 teaspoon at a time stirring constantly (you don’t need much water). You want an icing with a good consistency that is thick enough to top the biscuits. Spoon the icing over the cooled biscuits. Leave to set and then enjoy, or store in an airtight container.
