Hot Chocolate Biscuits

My original attempt at hot chocolate biscuits were a sub-par batch of dry, cakey chocolate cookies from a recipe I found online so I went back to the drawing board and invented my own version which keeps the hot chocolate powder, generous chocolate chunks and gooey marshmallow but uses icing sugar in place of caster sugar and plain flour instead of self-raising. This creates a more even and less puffed-up biscuit without making them hard and brittle.

The combination of chunky milk chocolate pieces and chewy marshmallow inside a rich, dark cocoa biscuit makes for a delicious taste and texture. For further hot chocolatey decadence, sandwich two biscuits together with Marshmallow Fluff - scrumptious!

Note: the large chocolate chunks in these cookies means the dough will be fairly thick and slightly uneven when rolled out and the final result will be a little bumpy with oozy marshmallow patches, so I'd advise using a simple cutter rather than an intricately shaped one for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS - makes approx. 20 biscuits depending on size of cutter

• 8 oz plain flour
• 1 oz cocoa
• 1 oz hot chocolate powder
• 1 tsp Horlicks (or other malt drink powder)
• 1 oz icing sugar
• 6 oz margarine/butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 oz milk chocolate chips or cut-up chunks
• Handful of marshmallows snipped into small bits
• 0.5 tbsp instant ground coffee dissolved in approx. 0.5 tbsp boiling water

METHOD

1. Boil the kettle and pour about half a tbsp water over half a tbsp instant ground coffee and set aside.
2. Whisk the margarine/butter and icing sugar together until combined.
3. Add the flour, cocoa, hot chocolate powder, Horlicks, chocolate chunks and bits of marshmallow and mix briefly.
4. Add the vanilla extract and prepared coffee then use your hands to squash the mixture together to form a ball of dough. If it's too sticky, add a bit more flour.
5. Wrap the dough in clingfilm or a freezer bag and chill in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes.
6. Place the ball of dough onto a large clean sheet of baking parchment then place another sheet on top and roll out with a rolling pin until about 1.5cm thick, depending on the size of the chocolate pieces (alternatively, you could roll the dough out on a floured surface but this may spoil the colour of the biscuits a bit).
7. Cut out as many biscuits as possible using your cutter of choice (I used a flower shape) and place onto a parchment-lined baking tray then squish the offcuts of dough together, re-roll and repeat the process until all the dough is used up.
8. Pop in the oven and bake at 180 degrees C for about 8-10 minutes then transfer onto a wire rack. This is the part where I'd normally say leave to cool but don't leave them too long as they're delicious while still warm from the oven - just beware of molten marshmallow!