Sunday 17 January 2016

(yet more) Biscuits

...and I'm finally happy with how they look.

The key goal was to get them looking pretty, though I've also tweaked a few other things, to hopefully improve the texture etc etc. I was tempted to abandon the white chocolate ganache, as it was a swine to get set, however I didn't like the idea of letting it beat me. The other main change was the addition of semolina/durham wheat to the biscuit mix...this should give the biscuits a bit more crispness... I've only tried them fresh so far, but they were definitely crisper. The final change was decorative mainly, and that was a bit of demerara sugar sprinkled onto the cut-out halves, to break up the flat surface a bit. I also baked them for 2 minutes longer, again hoping for a slightly crisper biscuit.

I've re-done the recipe here, with the minor changes. So long as they pass muster with the flavour, I think this one can be put to bed.

Chocolate Orange Cream Biscuits

Ganache Ingredients

  • 150g white chocolate
  • 80g Double Cream
  • 5g unsalted butter
  • 20g orange juice
  • Zest from one orange

1) Place all the ingredients in a heat-proof bowl, and heat over a bain-marie, stirring regularly.

2) Once the chocolate has melted, and the mixture has become smooth, remove from the heat, and allow to cool

3) The mixture will be runny for a while....transfer to a piping bag, clip the open end, and place in the fridge until the mixture firms up (so it won't run when piped). This can take 3+ hours

Biscuit Ingredients

  • 100g butter (softened)
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 175g plain flour
  • 50g semolina
  • 25g cocoa powder
  • ½tsp baking powder
  • ½tsp salt
  • demerara sugar (to decorate)


1) Cream the butter and sugar together until white and fluffy

2) Beat the egg in, and mix thoroughly

3) Add in the sifted flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, and mix until a firm dough is formed

4) Wrap in clingfilm, and chill in the fridge for an hour.

5) pre-heat oven to 150'C

6) once chilled remove dough from the fridge, and roll to 5mm thickness (I used wooden batons) on a floured surface

7) Using a 60mm cutter, cut out 32 biscuits, and place on non-stick baking trays, evenly spaced

8) Using a small star cutter, remove the middle of half of the biscuits



9) Sprinkle a few crystals of demerara sugar on the star cut-out biscuits

10) Bake in the oven for 14 minutes

11) Remove from the oven, and leave on the trays for a couple of minutes

12) Transfer the biscuits to wire racks to cool completely

Assembling the Biscuits

1) Pair the biscuits up (one with a star hole, one without). Flip the non-holed ones upside down.

2) Pipe a small amount of the orange ganache onto the upside down biscuits (a blog about the size of a £2 coin)

3) Gently press the biscuit with a star cutout onto the ganache