Tessa Kiros

Chocolate & Cranberry Biscuits

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Preparation info

  • Difficulty

    Easy

  • Makes

    30

    biscuits

Appears in

Apples for Jam

Apples for Jam

By Tessa Kiros

Published 2010

These I learned from my American friend, Sue. When I first made them my children said they were the best ever and I must definitely put the recipe in this book — so here it is. I also love them with dried strawberries instead of cranberries, and sometimes my girls prefer them without the cranberries, just chocolate. I like these small so I make them no bigger than a good teaspoon of dough, but you might like to make them larger. I also like to take them as a gift, packed in a lovely box and tied with a ribbon. Unless you have a huge oven, you will need to bake these in batches, so have the two trays ready.

Ingredients

  • 75 g(2¾ oz) butter, softened
  • 50 g(1¾ oz) soft brown sugar
  • 50 g(1¾ oz) caster (superfine) sugar
  • 1 egg
  • a few drops of vanilla extract
  • 160 g(5¾ oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 110 g(3¾ oz) dark (semi-sweet) chocolate, roughly chopped
  • 50 g(1¾ oz) dried cranberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F/Gas 5) and line two baking trays with baking paper. Mash up the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until well mixed, then whisk with electric beaters until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Sift in the flour and baking powder and add a small pinch of salt. Beat with the wooden spoon to make a soft sandy mixture. Stir in the chocolate and cranberries.

Lightly moisten your hands and roughly roll teaspoons of the mixture into balls. Arrange them on the trays, leaving a fair space between for flattening and spreading. Bake for about 12–15 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden and darkening around the edges. Remove from the oven but leave them on the tray to cool and firm up. These will keep in a biscuit tin for a couple of days.

© 2010 All rights reserved. Published by Murdoch Books.