Sour cherry and white chocolate biscuits
This is a variation on the Ottolenghi recipe of last week but this time I used dried sour cherries (instead of Ottolenghi’s cranberries) and restored the oatflakes of the original recipe instead of the ground almonds which I had substituted. The texture was more crunchy but, just as with the cranberries, the fruit may as well have been sultanas as the flavour was not distinctly cherry (or as last week cranberry). V. nice but not v. special.
The tin is one of M&S’s best. It came with a very rich fruitcake which is long gone. My only complaint about the tin is that I can only see one very weak attempt at a daffodil which I find ever so slightly distressing given the plethora of roses, shamrocks and thistles and being almost half Welsh myself. Nevermind, it’s still a lovely tin.
Sour cherry and white chocolate biscuits
Ingredients
90 grams / 3 oz of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt (or less)
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
100 grams/3 and a half oz of butter at room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
100 grams/ 3 and a half oz of brown sugar
20 grams/three quarters of an oz of caster sugar
80 grams/2 and three quarter oz of oat flakes
75 grams / 2 and a half oz dried sour cherries
60 grams / just over 2 oz white chocolate chopped into chip size
1 beaten egg
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C for a fan oven/190 degrees C for an oven without a fan/Gas Mark 5
Line 2-3 baking trays with baking parchment
Cream the butter with both sugars until light and creamy. Add the vanilla extract and the beaten egg, stirring until well mixed.
Now add the sifted dry ingredients beat well in. Lastly swirl in the dried sour cherries and the chopped white chocolate.
Take spoonfuls of the mixture (a walnut sized ball) and drop them on to a baking tray, keeping them well spaced apart because they spread out quite a lot. Bake them for about 10 minutes till nice and brown and let them cool on the tray a few minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to completely cool.
Makes 25-30 biscuits