For the first time in my 28 years of marriage, I have baked something my husband goes back for MORE of. Mind you, he says he is poorly and it's made him hungry, so that's the reason. A wee bit short of praise there dear. Anyway, herewith the recipe, to see if you can tempt your loved ones without sweet teefs. I hope you will think I am wonderful to pass it on to you as the publishers of this book - Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros - chose a light silvery grey for the print of the recipes and being of a certain age, whilst I don't need reading glasses yet, I DO need a good light and a clearly printed page! I'm sat here with a spotlight on said page.
CHOCOLATE AND CRANBERRY BISCUITS
75g (2 3/4 oz) softened butter
50g (1 3/4 ox) soft brown sugar
50g (1 3/4 oz) caster sugar
1 egg
A few drops of Vanilla extract
160g (5 3/4 oz) plain flour
1/2 tspn. baking powder
110g (3 3/4 oz) dark semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped (I used a bar of Lidl's dark raspberry chocolate)
50g ( 1v 3/4 oz) dried cranberries
Preheat the oven to 190 deg. C/375 deg. 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 (I forgot). Beat with the wooden spoon to make a soft sandy mixture. Stir in the chocolate and cranberries. (I will here confess that I used my food mixer and abandoned any wooden spoon beating).
Lightly moisten your hands and roughly roll teaspoons of the mixture into balls (this was strangely satisfying!) Arrange them on the trays, leaving a fair space between for flattening and spreading - I used larger amounts and mine didn't spread much, so I obviously did something wrong!) Bake for about 12 - 15 mins, 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. Makes about 30 biscuits.
A me-treat from Laura Ashley when I went in for paint in their sale.
We had a walk round Burry Port harbour to get some sea air yesterday. I'll write it up tomorrow.
Those biscuits look rather scrumptious. Plan to do some baking this afternoon so think I'll try your recipe :)
ReplyDeleteHope you don't mind but I have another book related question! Desperately missing Merrily books now I am up to date and I wondered if you had tried any of Phil Rickman's other books such as the ones on Dr. Dee?
The biscuits sound very tasty! :-)
ReplyDeleteR. Robin - I think I have read most now. The Dr Dee ones are good too - obviously not the same as Merrily because you know the area/characters, but he write so well. Have you read his earliest ones, when he was writing for a more horror market - the Man in the Moss, Crybbe etc? I hope you enjoy the biccies.
ReplyDeleteEmma - Hello and yes they are. Using the raspberry chocolate makes them more palatable for me as I don't care for my husbands' 81% cocoa solids choc.
Those sound delicious BB. Even more so if your OH is enjoying them!
ReplyDeleteDW - I've even far worse!
ReplyDeleteGet thee behind me BB - I gained two pounds last week and am trying to lose it this week.
ReplyDeleteI've had just one, to taste it. OH has eaten several, however! I'll send you a blindfold Pat!!
ReplyDeleteI can't convert the ingredients amounts to something I recognize, but the listing and the finished 'cookies' look very like what I regularly make as 'chocolate chip cookies' aka Toll House Cookies. I buy the semi-sweet chocolate chips.
ReplyDeleteI do like your 'shaker'--the design is similar to those I learned to do in tole painting classes many years ago.