Chocolate biscuits

[davidn]

I don't think I'll ever be able to explain why even though I'm lucky to make anything edible for my own dinner while surviving the experience with all my limbs intact, I still enjoy and am rather better at baking - it seems that as long as sugar is a primary ingredient of something, I'm perfectly all right. Last weekend, I made it my ambition to combine an oatmeal biscuit recipe I'd made before with a couple of extra steps, with the aim of making something approaching Hob Nobs.

~ Something Approaching Hob Nobs ~

You need these to make 12 biscuits:

3 oz butter
3 oz caster sugar
1 egg yolk
3 oz plain flour (doesn't even have to be modified for America)
Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt
1 oz rolled oats
1 oz of any sweet, oaty nugget-like cereal you can get your hands on. I used something called "Just Bunches" here, and in Britain, I think Crunchy Nut Clusters would work well.
6 oz chocolate chips for melting
Vegetable oil
A mixer
A microwave
An oven
Your hands
Electricity

PROC Recipe

1. Cream the butter and sugar together into a sort of yellow sweet mass in an electric mixer. Then add these:

2. The egg yolk.

3. The flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

4. The oats.

5. The cereal.

6. Coldness. (Put it in the fridge for twenty minutes.)

7. Preheat the oven to 375F, 190C or Gas Mark 5, and oil up a baking sheet.

8. Hand-roll the mixture into balls, put them on the sheet and flatten them down with the bottom of a floured glass your fingers.

9. Bake them until they're golden brown. It takes about ten minutes, but you really have to watch them, because if they're in there for too long they'll just burn to a smouldering heap instantly.

10. Use a spatula to get them off the baking tray and upside-down on to a cooling rack (preferably with some paper underneath to catch drips for the next part).

11. Put the chocolate chips in a bowl and add a few drops of vegetable oil, then mix them around - and I really do mean "a few drops!" Even a teaspoonful is too much and will cause the chocolate never to solidify again once it's on the biscuits.

12. Microwave the oily chocolate. Be gentle with them - microwave for about thirty seconds and then stir them around, because the heat will transfer among them slowly - you don't want to burn them. Two trips into the microwave should do it.

13. By any means necessary, get the melted chocolate on to the undersides of the biscuits. You can do this by dipping them in, spatulaing the chocolate over them, or a combination of both. You could even slide them in so that one half is entirely chocolate-coated, but I'm not entirely sure how to dry them in this case.

14. Wait for the chocolate to harden. If you listened to me in step 11, store them in an airtight container. If you didn't, put them in the freezer - they'll solidify in there, and they're also nice if you eat them while they're frozen.

I've actually halved the original recipe because there's no chance that a two-person household can withstand more than twelve of these at a time - they're big and really very filling.

Comments

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

I have noticed that a lot of people are usually more proficient at baking or cooking - one or the other, but not both. I have a foodie friend who can't bake for his life but can make meals out of a few ingredients that happen to be laying about, he loves the baked goods I create, but ask me to make anything without a recipe card and I'll create some bland soup with a couple of ingredients that should have never been added in the first place.

I think it comes down to how we think - baking is a science of numbers and precision while cooking is rather floppy in the strictness - plus, you can keep "fixing" cooked foods, whereas baking is pretty much "make it and let it do its job".

I really like this recipe, by the way. I think I may need to try this out at the new place (after I christen the location with a batch of Chocolate-Chip cookies, of course). :) I've never been big on the flakes in "Honey Bunches of Oats", and "Just Bunches" is so delicious, I need to find it more often. This recipe will give me more desire to find it.

[davidn]

People tell me that they're two very different things despite the supericial similarities, but that's the first time that I've heard it explained in such a close way to computer science that it makes sense that I would be somehow competent at it!

As part of my country displacement I had to find a staple cereal for myself all over again, and Just Bunches (when it was eventually invented) came the closest to what I'd previously liked - it's unfortunate that you can't get it in huge boxes like other cereals. I'm glad to spread demand for it around, and I'm always very encouraged when you say that you like a recipe - I would be very eager to hear of what you thought of them, if you ever get the chance to make them :)

I've just realized that the original recipe called for one egg yolk, which I didn't halve... I'm not entirely sure how much different it would make, and calling for "half an egg yolk" is silly.

Also, as mentioned below - what are your thoughts on the issue of hairdrying biscuits?

[tamakun.livejournal.com]

I've never personally hairdried a biscuit in an attempt to wick the heat away from the cookie before. It'd probably work - on no-heat, obviously, but then I think that maybe using a small standing fan would be more productive than having to manually blow-dry each individual cookie.

But, oh, I see, you were thinking one-half of each side for each cookie... the "rack" method would be easier to work with, but I still think a simple fan would increase productivity. But, in a pinch, a blowdryer would work, too. (I should try it, we have them laying around, anyways.)

Regarding the egg yolk, it'll just add more protein and moisture to the mix. So technically, I think this recipe will result in a moister/chewier cookie, but that also depends on how long the cookie is baked for.

I'm going to have to remember where I saw "Just Bunches" up here, since it's not everywhere, which makes my shopping a little more scattered. Until then, I'll just have to settle for granola clusters.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

I've actually halved the original recipe because there's no chance that a two-person household can withstand more than twelve of these at a time - they're big and really very filling.

I'm sure eating 6 normal biscuits in one sitting would be very filling too. Remember though that you can put them in a container and keep them for later.

A few of ways to do a half coated cookie that I can think of just now.
1. Use hair dryer on cold air and gentle to harden the chocolate quicker.
2. Use the grill from the grill pan to stand them up on the end
3. Sit on greaseproof paper and hope people don't look underneath

I would probably do it by number 2 method, as less chance of sticking and would look more rustic.

[davidn]

Well, yes, they've been in our freezer for a week now, disappearing at a rate of one a day!

Those are some very creative suggestions - I would imagine the normal way was to put them on greaseproof paper so that they can be peeled off easily one dry with only a flattening of the underside's chocolate, but I really like the idea of a sort of toast rack style arrangement (though I imagine that it would end up with them completely covered anyway as it dripped). I also have to wonder what the baker above would think of drying biscuits out with a hair dryer! I'll ask.

[kibet.livejournal.com]

I don't think the hair dryer is that bizarre, it is an appliance that people would have handy (or at least those with hair as I don't have one). Afterall, they use a blowtorch in the kitchen.

I had originally thought toast rack but the edges would touch the chocolate part. Using a grill, it could balance from the bottom. Before putting it on the rack, after you dip it in then let excess chocolate run off and only when the drips are 5-10 seconds apart, turn upside down to dry on rack.

Also since you put them in the freezer, could you put them in the freezer beforehand then the hot chocolate is hitting the cold biscuit, and should cool down quicker.