A scrumptous biscuit adapted from the latest Mary Berry book, Foolproof Cooking. (I replaced 25 g of the flour with 25 g ground almonds, because I find it almost impossible to make biscuits without them). Very very quick and easy, producing a real treat of a biscuit that belies the simplicity of the recipe and the comparatively cheapness of the ingredients. If you like chocolate, cherries and a hint of almond this is the biscuit. Also great to serve with a good quality vanilla ice cream as an excellent dessert.
Chocolate and cherry biscuits – based on a recipe in Mary Berry’s Foolproof Cooking (BBC Books 2016)
100 g butter, cubed and softened
50 g golden caster sugar
100 g Self Raising flour
25 g ground almonds
15 g cocoa powder
75 g chopped glacé cherries (or dried cherries)
Preheat the oven to 180 °C/ 160°C fan oven /Gas Mark 4 and grease 2 baking sheets with Lakeland’s ‘CakeRelease’ (or of course line two baking sheets with baking paper).
Beat butter and caster sugar until creamy. Add sifted flour, cocoa powder, ground almonds and chopped cherries. Mix together and then bring the dough together with your hands to form a ball.
Mary divides this into 16 balls but I made 20 as I find a slightly smaller biscuit better. (A certain amount of redistribution of the cherry pieces went on at this point as I probably hadn’t cut them up enough in the first place.) Place the biscuits on the baking sheet and then flatten each by pressing down on them with the back of a fork (dip the fork in hot water if it picks up the dough.
Bake for 12- 15 minutes (nearer the 12 for me, especially as Mary warns they become dark vert easily). If you want to add an extra cherry half on top do this the minute you take the biscuits from the oven. Leave on the baking tray for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to complete the cooling process and firm up.
Mary suggests dusting with icing sugar when cool. I didn’t, preferring to see them in their chocolatey brown loveliness.
I made a second batch of these biscuits and added tiny pieces of fudge. These were also excellent but do press the fudge well into the dough or it turns to toffee brittle when it dribbles down on to the baking tray – of course some people enjoyed the biscuit even more when this happened.
Chocolate and cherry biscuits – based on a recipe in Mary Berry’s Foolproof Cooking (BBC Books 2016)
The Sunday service issued invitations to pets and we enjoyed the addition of dogs and a very well behaved chicken. Two passing sleepy bees were treated to a warm syrup of diluted sugar.( A wasp that turned up later wasn’t so lucky.)
The cherry trees in the lane by Cross Farm have been beautiful for about a week but are now over. In the last few years they have been prolific with more than enough fruit for birds and people. There are lambs in nearby fields again, although they have lambed elsewhere since the farmer stopped having his own flock and let the field to tenants. The general consensus is that the ducklings will have been picked off by foxes and I have as yet met no one else who had even a passing glimpse of them. Sic transit gloria mundi …
9 Comments
I agree – smaller biscuits are almost always better. Those huge cookies in coffee shops put me off almost as much as piles of greasy buttercream!
That’s very true Rachel.
I have the same book and have cooked absolutely loads of recipes from it, every single one simple to follow, easy to make, and usually very speedy to prepare. Any single one of these virtues would be enough to encourage a ‘celebrity chef’ to produce a whole book, probably full of poorly tested recipes that their back room team had dreamed up. She is such a genuine talent, amd modest with it. The biscuits look delicious, and are one of the few recipes I haven’t tried from the book! X
Yes, it looks as if it’ll be in frequent use when I’m living with and cooking for more of the family. Her television series was a great inspiration for buying the book. Like Delia, Mary is absolutely reliable and you can feel total confidence in the recipes working.
I bake with my daughter most weekends and I think I will try the biscuit recipe tomorrow – thank you. We made a Paul Hollywood shortcake recipe last week, very good. I thought that animals in church was something that could only happen in an episode of the Vicar of Dibley. bx
They are certainly lovely simple biscuits, so I hope if you made some, all worked out well.
We are used to animals in church and over the last few years 2 of our regular organists came with dogs (very well behaved). One, a three legged pug used to rush up the stairs to the organ loft and lie low for the entire service while the other would sit with the organist’s partner in the pews beneath. Cats would not I think be a good idea. Someone who came to hear her banns read would have walked over with her shetland pony if she had realised it was an animal service – may be next year.
Todays biscuits could even encourage me to whip out the baking tray!
Sad about the ducklings.. here the ducklings are attacked by feral cats although last year I came across a bunch of ducklings and their parents strewn around as if something awful had occurred. Suddenly they all leapt up and shot off into the bush which made me jump I can tell you.
Fortunately the cats round here – which are very domesticated and well fed – are not very interested in ducklings. I’ve seen few foxes here – in London rarely a day went by without having one trotting along the garden’s back wall – but I’m assured by owners of hens that they are around and all too active
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