Tuesday 2 October 2012

Chocolate melting moments

I was not entirely sure what to make this week and so asked M for some inspiration. After a moment of thought his face lit up and h said 'posh biscuits'. What is a posh biscuit I hear you ask, or maybe you don't, maybe unlike me you already knew. I worked out he meant something that was not an american style cookie. 

So after a little thought I came up with these. A two tone vanilla and chocolate melting moment sandwiched together with a white chocolate ganache.
I was going to pipe swirls but was short on time and my butter was a little hard so I piped little fingers instead.

Chocolate melting moments

I made 24 little sandwiched fingers but it depends on how you pipe the mixture.

For the vanilla biscuits

62g butter
14g icing sugar
tsp vanilla paste (or extract)
14g cornflour
62g plain flour

For the chocolate biscuits

62g butter
14g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)
14g cornflour
52g plain flour
10g cocoa powder

For the ganache

80ml of double cream
100g white chocolate, broken up

Prepare the ganache by gently heating the cream to boiling point, pour over the chocolate and leave for a couple of minutes. Stir briskly with a fork, the chocolate should be all melted and smooth. If any lumps of chocolate remain that do not go away after stirring stand the bowl in a little hot water and stir again. Leave the ganache to cool and thicken, first on the work top and as it cools you can move it to the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.

To make the vanilla biscuits beat the butter sugar and vanilla together until very soft, ~ 5 minutes. It needs to be very soft so it is pipeable.

Add in the flour and cornflour and, using a spoon, bring the dough together.

Using a star nozzle pipe either swirls or fingers onto the prepared baking sheets. If you are finding it hard to pipe the butter is probably a little hard and you will need to beat it for longer next time. 

Make the chocolate biscuits in the same way, adding the cocoa along with the flours.

Pop the trays in the fridge or freezer for 15 minutes to help the butter firm up. This prevents the biscuits spreading and keeps the piped shape nice and sharp after baking.

Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden. 

Remove from the baking sheets and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Pair up the biscuits with a friend of a similar size. 
Give the ganache a quick whisk with a fork. With a piping bag and star nozzle, or a spoon ( I used a nozzle, these were 'posh' biscuits remember ..) place ganache along one biscuit of each pair sandwiching the second on top. 
These are lovely short, crumbly, melty biscuits that pair really nicely with the creamy ganache. I hope I succeeded in my quest for posh biscuits, judging by M's reaction I did just that!

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