needs more sugar

Cherries!

I think the cherry has to be one of the most ‘Christmassy’ bits of fruit for me. I have such fond memories of big Christmas day dinners at Grandma’s house – a huge bowl of fresh cherries on the big wooden table, bowls of nuts, christmas pudding..

As soon as I got the Bourke Street Bakery Cookbook for my birthday I went straight to the sweets section, saw these and bookmarked them – sour cherry? In a biscuit? Sign me up!

Crunchy on the outside, like fudge on the inside.

Ingredients:

235g dark chocolate, chopped
150g plain flour
40g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarb soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g unsalted butter
240g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
85g dried sour cherries

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 165°C
2. Put the chocolate in a large stainless steel bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water, make sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water
3. Allow the water in the bowl to boil for 2 minutes, then turn off the heat and stir the chocolate while it melts
4. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb soda and salt into a bowl.
5. Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk on medium speed until pale and creamy
6. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding more
7. Add the dry ingredients in three batches, mixing well after each addition, then add the melted chocolate and mix until well combined
8. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold through the sour cherries
9. Refridgerate the mix for 15 minutes before shaping the biscuits
10. Take 3 tablespoons of mixture at a time and roll into even sized balls – you should get about 12 out of the mix
11. Place the balls on baking trays lined with baking paper, allowing room for them to spread
12. Refridgerate for a further 30 minutes, or until firm
13. Bake in batches for 15-20 minutes or until risen and quite cracked on top
14. Cool on trays (or eat hot from the oven – yum!) – they will store in an airtight container for up to 3 days

Tags: chocolate, christmas

This entry was posted on December 23, 2010 at 6:45 pm and is filed under biscuits & cookies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.