Choccy biscuits, short in texture, buttery, sweet but deep with cocoa and nestling a chunk of chocolate inside. Yes please.

This is an inadvertent adaptation of a recipe by Nigella Lawson, from the ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ book. I had made these biscuits and liked them, but they really are very short and I wasn’t sure about a biscuit that needed a glug of liquid after every bite.

Fast forward a bit and we went to a Food Fair in Brighton. One of the (many) organic chocolate stalls had cookies with a nice chunk of chocolate inside – jolly nice they were too. I looked at the ingredients and was thrilled (and amazed) to see that it was indeed all natural – no stabilisers or weird things listed. The list of ingredients was strangely familiar, as was the texture, when finally the penny dropped. I knew I knew this biscuit from somewhere. So I set to work.

Well, when I say I set to work, I mean about a year later.

So, sieve the flour and cocoa together into a bowl and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (high five!)
Add the flour and cocoa.

Work in the flour and cocoa (I use a stiff rubber spatula and press it together) to make a stiff dough. Sorry; I used the word ‘stiff’ a lot in that instruction, so if Google brought you here, this might not have been what you had in mind. That might be a happy coincidence though – cooking will keep your mind cleaner (actually it won’t, but never mind)

Pinch pieces of the dough off.

Form into a ball and indent with your thumb.

Press a piece of chocolate into the indentation.

Bring the dough up and around the chocolate to seal it inside.

Gently roll in hands to smooth a little and place on the greased baking sheets. Press down slightly with the tines of a fork.

Bake for 5 mins, then reduce oven temperature to GM2/300F/150C for a further 15 mins or so.
The colour doesn’t change that much; just make sure they feel fairly firm on top.

Transfer immediately to a wire rack to cool. Use a fairly wide spatula/fish slice because they are very fragile when warm.

Surprise Chocolate Biscuits

adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson

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300g self raising flour
30g cocoa
250g soft unsalted butter
125g caster sugar

squares of chocolate – your choice; milk, dark, toblerone, mint, whatever

Preheat oven to GM3/325F/170C
Baking sheets, greased

Sieve the flour and cocoa together into a bowl and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Work in the flour and cocoa (I use a stiff rubber spatula and press it together) to make a stiff dough. I used teh word ‘stiff’
Pinch pieces of the dough off.

Form into a ball and indent with your thumb. Press a piece of chocolate into the indentation.
Bring the dough up and around the chocolate to seal it inside.

Gently roll in hands to smooth a little and place on the greased baking sheets. Press down slightly with the tines of a fork.

Bake for 5 mins, then reduce oven temperature to GM2/300F/150C for a further 15 mins or so.
The colour doesn’t change that much; just make sure they feel fairly firm on top.

Transfer immediately to a wire rack to cool. Use a fairly wide spatula/fish slice because they are very fragile when warm.