Wednesday, June 29, 2011

CHOCOLATE CREAM FINGERS



I blog in spurts.

I keep telling myself that I will never blog in spurts again. It's bad. As bad as gorging on chocolate cream filled chocolatey biscuits when you're trying to be healthy. Or trying to walk in a straight line.

Sorry for the an unplanned absence. I have been uninspired and distracted. For many reasons. The heat, mega sales, the heat, friends, the heat and family. And mainly mega sales. And the heat.



Nevertheless, these English chocolate cream filled chocolate biscuits are reminiscent of the chocolate bourbons from Marks and Spencer that I gorged on thirty years ago. So busy was I that I got yelled at by a man with a heavy load on his shoulders. I almost walked into him. I jumped out of his way in the nick of time. I'm sure he would have hit me on my head if he could.

Thank god Mary Berry had a recipe for it. Thank god I bought her Fast Cakes recipe book thirty years ago. And thank god they taste just like my memory of it. The biscuits I mean.

These are very, very chocolatey, and although they are sandwiched with chocolate icing the sweetness is cut down very much by the use of cocoa powder in the recipe. I urge you to try them if you are a chocoholic like me. Best chocolate biscuits ever. Ever, ever, ever. 

No these are not at all like our Asian KGB version of chocolate cream fingers. Never liked those...very very very bland and tasteless.



These are traditionally made in the finger shape with the required ten holes and a filling of simple chocolate butter icing. Like the Oreos they are good for dunking, for taking apart, for scraping the filling off with your two front teeth or just biting into it whole.

These are not short or buttery like shortbread of which you can tire of quickly because of its buttery richness. They are crunchy and doesn't give in as easily because there is no egg in the recipe to give it lightness nor too much butter to make it tender. It's very much like a sugar cookie. But a dark chocolate one. And definitely not as sweet. The most delicious.


The dough may seem a little dry when you mix it in and are trying to bring it together but persevere and don't be tempted to add more butter or an egg. It's meant to be. And once you roll it out it will come together rich, dark, chocolatey and neat.


The recipe ~ by Mary Berry

Makes about 12 chocolate cream fingers



4 oz plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 T cocoa powder
2 oz soft magarine or butter
2 oz castor sugar
1 T golden syrup


Filling


1 oz soft magarine or butter
2 oz icing sugar
2 tsp cocoa
a few drops of vanilla essence


Place all biscuit ingredients together in a bowl and using a wooden spoon first work them together until they are evenly distributed. The mixture will be crumbly and sort of dry. Don't despair. Turn the mixture onto a slightly sugared table and using your hands press and knead gently to warm the butter in the dough and until it just all comes together nicely and is a ball of dough. Press with hands to form into a firmer ball of dough. The dough will still be somewhat loosely held together but once you roll it out it will come together better from the pressure of the rolling pin. If the dough breaks up while rolling out just stop and patch it up and then roll again.


Roll out the dough until about 1/4 inch thickness between 2 sheets of baking paper. Remove the top baking paper and cut the rolled dough into fingers about 1 inch by 21/2 inches. Prick each finger with a fork two or three or four times. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Lift off ot cool on a wire rack.


For the filling, put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. until smooth and creamy. Use to sandwich the biscuits together in pairs.

25 comments:

Cathy said...

These beautiful cookies will surely satisfy my next chocolate craving. They are so pretty on a plate, Zurin, and I'm looking forward to trying your recipe.

Gloria Baker said...

These cookies look delicious!! gloria

Anonymous said...

Using them as a sandwich is a great idea!!

José Manuel said...

Que pasada, he descubierto tú blog y me encanta.

Saludos

Federica Simoni said...

questi biscotti oltre ad essere bellissimi devono essere deliziosi!!!baci!

Torviewtoronto said...

delicious looking cookies looks wonderful

Sarah-Jane - SiliconeMoulds.com said...

I saw your post a moment ago and instantly thought- hey- chocolate bourbons..... and it HAS to be Marks and Spencers.

Soo funny !

These look darn good Zurin !

Did you get me email yesterday ? I've lost your address and got something here for you x

terri@adailyobsession said...

never made biscuits before. they look so perfect, like machine-made. i believe you tt they are better than any on the supermarket shelves.

Anonymous said...

These are really pretty, and cute too!

Food Gal said...

Mmm, chocolate cookie sandwiches. Love these! After all, it's a triple treat of chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. ;)

MaryMoh said...

Yes, I love these. I've bookmarked it to try someday. I remember eating lots of these when I was young. Thanks very much for sharing. Have fun in whatever you are doing :D MaryMoh at http://www.keeplearningkeepsmiling.com

Anonymous said...

These look really delicious and beautiful. I can't wait until I find time to try them!

Sashquatch said...

oh my holy yum, chocolate bourbons are my all time FAVOURITE tea time biccie (although custard creams and jammy dodgers are pretty close contenders too :) ) I remember years ago I naively tried to whip up a copycat version, which didnt turn out half bad as a cookie but nothing like the real thing! This is DEFINITELY going to be made in my kitchen very soon indeed, I cant wait, thank you! :)

Heidi said...

Those look delicious! And so cute :D

Anonymous said...

This looks like something I could eat stacks of during PMS, lol...haha...wow, looks amazing!

Anonymous said...

Ooooh this sounds so good! And sweetie, don't worry. KGB ain't got nothing on this! Just from the looks of it, you can tell it won't taste anything like the dry, bland KGB (which surprisingly enough was my fave when I was a child!). I can't wait to give this a try!

p/s: I hear ye on the sales & heat! Heat makes me run indoors, whee there are more sales, and well, ynoe, horrid shopping cycle :P

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

home cookies is good, fresh and nice, this must be perfect with a cup of milk..

Sarah said...

this is awesome! looks so much like bourbon biscuits that we get here :)

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

Zurin, these look glorious! I am so going to make them!

Through My Kitchen Window said...

Your bikkies look perfect. A storebought biscuit could never look this good. Love the sandwich idea. And don't worry about blogging in spurts - I think it's better than what I do - blog like mad and then drop out for months on end.
Your photos are as gorgeous as ever!
Mariana xx

Unknown said...

This is a great recipe. I'm so exicited to make it for my nieces and newphews.

Sashquatch said...

Me again! I told you I would make them :) Blogged about them too here...
http://theprocrastobaker.blogspot.com/2011/07/chocolate-bourbons.html
Thank you so much for the lovely recipe, I sent the majority of the batch off with my mums partner (after id had my share of couurseee!) to give to his grandkids and they LOVED them, thanks again!

Finla said...

I love them too, and I am going to make them, bookmarking the recipe.

Irmina Díaz-Frois Martín said...

I like these cookies, I also did. I'll give you the link if you want to see them.
I really like your blog.
Regards.

Galletas Bourbon Caseras

Unknown said...

Sono bellissimi! devo assolutamente imparare l'inglese, è l'unico modo per farli...:-)

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