Double chocolate biscuits with crunchy pepita tops

 

In a bid to be economical, we are attempting to not buy lunch at all this week, and to cook all the fresh food in the house before doing something reckless like going out for laksa.  So, for purely financial reasons I felt compelled to bake us a supply of biscuits to provide sweet sweet sustenance throughout the work week.


But because it's Sunday and I'm feeling pretty lazy, I decided I couldn't be arsed with recipes.  And I figured, biscuits, how hard can they be, right?  So I made some.  Just like that.  I didn't really know what I was doing so I didn't bother with any measurements that weren't bleedingly obvious.   And they've turned out to be pretty darn alright. I am feeling mighty chuffed right this moment.


Ingredients:

• 125g, or half a stick, unsalted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons cocoa
• 50g couverture chocolate
• pepitas (aka little green seeds)

Make them the way you'd make any biscuits.  Heat the oven to 160 degrees (or 170 if your oven isn't fan-forced).  Cream the butter and sugar.  Add the vanilla and egg and continue to beat.  Add the flour, nutmeg and cocoa and beat.

Take the square of chocolate and hack it into shards.  If it's good quality chocolate it will shatter nicely.  Stir it into the biscuit dough.

Line two trays with baking paper.  Scoop the dough into walnut sized balls and press the tops slightly with your fingers.  Then press them gently into the pepitas and place them on the trays.

Bake for 15 minutes.  While baking, paint your nails.  Cool them on a rack.  Poke them with your finger.  Check they're not poisoned.  Check again, you'd really hate to be poisoning people accidentally.

Then sit down properly like a civilised lady and have two more with a cup of rooibos chai.