Chocolate Biscuit Cake - Third time's the charm

Disclosure: This blog uses Amazon text links which can generate a nominal advertising fee for this site when a purchase is made from Amazon.com. For more information see the Disclosure page.

I ran across a recipe for Chocolate Biscuit Cake and I had to pause...

Chocolate covered biscuits? An image of chocolate dipped Pillsbury Grand Biscuits popped into my head. I thought about it for a second and finally shook my head. I couldn’t imagine steaming, flaky, buttermilk pillows coated with chocolate.

Then I had a DUH moment. The recipe was talking about British “biscuits” and not American “biscuits”. (A British biscuit is more like a church American cookie.) I mentally replaced biscuits with cookies and started to drool. I love chocolate, I love cookies, so the thought of the two combined into a cake was like something out of a dream.

I ducked into my pantry and finding all the ingredients on hand I decided to whip one up… and 24 hours later I had something resembling a sad, lumpy, lopsided Chocolate Biscuit Cake.

First off, the actors in this tragedy…

The original recipe called for biscuit cookies such as Burton’s or McVitie’s. I’ve never heard of those brands so I used some packets of Lorna Doone cookies that were left over from Halloween. I also didn’t want to experiment on a full size cake so I cut the recipe in half.

So first step was to line a mini load pan with plastic wrap, and then prepare the chocolate ganache for the cake.

Pour a thin layer of ganache into the pan.

And then top the melted chocolate with a layer of cookies. I wanted a high ratio of cookies to chocolate so I broke up the Lorna Doones and fitted the pieces into every available space.

Next pour a layer of chocolate on top of the cookies, and then more cookies. Continuing layering until you run out of chocolate or space in the pan. Loosely fold the ends of the plastic wrap over the cake and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Once the cake is set, remove it from the pan, unwrap and remove the plastic wrap, and place it top side down on a wire rack.

Next melt the chocolate for the cake’s outer coating. The original recipe called for a dark chocolate ganache coating, but I decided to try white chocolate instead. I though the color contrast would give the cake a little more visual pop.

And, sadly, this is where I ran into trouble. My ganache just wasn’t soft enough so I ended up spreading it on the cake like frosting.  Not pretty.  Refrigerate the unwrapped cake for at least 12 hours. 

When the chocolate is set, cut into 1/4” slices and serve…

Or try to serve.   When I tried to serve the cake problem #2 emerged.  Sadly as the cake started to thaw, I found that the bottom stuck to the plate. Very messy, and the brown slick left on the plate wasn’t very appealing. Taste-wise this Chocolate Biscuit Cake was pretty good but not great. The Lorna Doone cookies weren’t as rich and tasty as I had hoped, and the chocolate kind-of overpowered the cookies. So I decided to try the cake again and this time I decided to use some of my favorite tea cookies: Walker’s Pure Butter Shortbread.

So same process: layer of chocolate followed by layer of cookies.

But when I got to the final layer I realized I didn’t have room for another layer of the ultra-thick Walker cookies so for the final layer I used some left-over Lorna Doones.  And to solve the sticky cake bottom situation I crumbled up some Lorna Doones and gently pressed them into the liquid chocolate.

After allow the cake to chill for four hours, the final step was the white chocolate ganache. This time I decided to try Ghirardelli White Melting Wafers, but again I messed up because the Ghirardelli white chocolate just wasn’t thin enough to flow smoothly. (I really need to stop trying shortcuts and make a truly flow-able chocolate ganache.)

So my second attempt at the Chocolate Biscuit Cake solved one problem, but introduced two new problems. The cookie crumb base I added to the cake worked out great; it kept the cake from sticking to the platter and made it easy to serve. But using the Walker cookies didn’t work out so well. The cookies were much too thick to cut with a fork, so my taste testers had to hold the cake in their fingers and bite out big chunks with their teeth. – Not very genteel-looking as you can imagine.

The Ghirardelli wafers were also a bust. After refrigeration the coating was too thick and brittle so it shattered into pieces as I cut the cake. It was messy. Very messy.

So for my third attempt I went back to the Lorna Doone cookies, I used the cookie crumble base, and I (finally) used a pourable white chocolate ganache.   But I still wasn't satisfied with the look of the white ganache because this time I made it too thin.

So after the white chocolate ganache chilled for a few hours, I melted more of the Ghirardelli wafers and used a knife to spread it on like frosting.

In the end I learned to appreciate the chunky, rustic look of the cake, and because this time the Ghirardelli layer wasn't super thick it seemed to slice without breaking and shattering.

So the third time was kind-of, sort-of a success.  And everyone who tasted it loved it!  It turned out to be a great Easter dessert.





Happy Baking,

Carol

---

Chocolate Biscuit Cookie Cake

(adapted from Tea Time Magazine’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake)

Ingredients

4-5 oz Lorna Doone cookies (or other English-style tea biscuit cookies)

6 oz milk chocolate morsels

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract



White Chocolate Ganache

4 oz white chocolate morsels

3-1/2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

and/or

Ghirardelli White Melting Wafers

Directions

Line a mini loaf pan with plastic wrap and set aside. I used a 5-1/2 x 3-1/4 inch pan.

Place milk chocolate morsels in a heat proof bowl and set aside.

Place 1/3 cup cream and 1/2 tablespoon butter in a bowl and microwave until hot but not boiling. Pour over milk chocolate morsels. Let sit for 1 minute. Add the vanilla extract, and then stir until the morsels are melted and the mixture is smooth.

Pour just enough melted chocolate mixture to coat the bottom of the pan. Layer whole cookies on top of the chocolate. Use broken pieces of cookie to fill in any large gaps. Pour another layer of melted chocolate. Continue layering until the pan is full. End with a layer of chocolate.

Crumble about 4 cookies, and scatter the crumbs on top of the last layer of chocolate.

Cover the crumb layer with the tails of the plastic wrap and gently press the crumbs into the melted chocolate.

Refrigerate in pan until the chocolate is hard, approximately 4 hours.

Remove cake from pan, uncover the cookie crumb base, and place crumb side down on a wire rack. Place rack on a baking sheet covered in some parchment paper. Completely remove the plastic wrap from the cake.

Place white chocolate morsels in a heat proof bowl and set aside.

Place cream and butter in a bowl and microwave until hot but not boiling. Pour over white chocolate morsels. Let sit for 1 minute, and then stir until the morsels are melted and the mixture is smooth.

Pour the White Chocolate Ganache over the top of the cake allowing the ganache to drip down the side. Use an offset spatula to smooth the ganache over the cake.

Refrigerate, uncovered for at least 12 hours before serving.

If also using the Ghirardelli White Melting Wafers allow the white chocolate ganache to chill for 4 hours before adding the melted wafers.

To serve use a sharp, un-serrated knife and cut into 1/4 inch slices. When cutting press down with the knife rather than sawing.

---

---

Bitten Gingerbread Men - Christmas Cookies

I was trolling Pinterest for decorated sugar cookie ideas for Christmas, and I found a gingerbread man with a bite taken out of its leg.  I know this sounds morbid, but it was so cute.  I immediately decided that the half-eaten gingerbread man was going to be my Holiday cookie.

Now my cookies don't look anywhere near as good as Sweet Sugarbelle's version, but hey, I'm just an cookie decorating hack and she is the artist.   You can see the master's cookies here.

So how did I make them?  Well I pretty much followed Sugarbelle's instructions with just a few changes.

I used my standard "No Fail Sugar Cookie Recipe", and cut out my gingerbread men.  Next I used an interesting looking pattern to take the "bite" out of the leg, arm or body.  I tried taking a bite out of the head, but that just looked to weird/sick.

Baked them next, and here they are right out of the oven. 

Onto the decorating...  I used my standard icing to dam, flood, and decorate the cookies.  It is a Corn Syrup Royal Icing.  It is nice for flooding and gives the dried icing a pretty shine, but it isn't the best for adding the details to the cookies.  Even at a stiff consistency it tends to be a little soft and runny, and doesn't hold points very well.  But I was in a rush and didn't have time to try out Sugarbelle's recommended icing.  Maybe next time...

Anyway to pipe the dam I used a Wilton Round #1 tip, and icing at a stiff consistency.  I get my tips from either Hobby Lobby or Michael's, and they cost about $1 each.  The icing is tinted with Wilton's Brown food color gel.  I usually dam 4-5 cookies in at a time, and after I finish the 4th I loop back around and start flooding the first.  I want to give the dam enough time to set, but not enough time for it to dry.  When I flood I push the flood icing on top of the dam so they both merge into one seamless surface.

For flooding I used a Wilton Round #3 tip.  I pipe the flooding icing about 1/4 inch away from the previously piped dam, and then I use an offset spatula to push the flood icing on top of the dam.  The flood icing will float over the dam, but "hopefully" won't spill over it. 

As a final step I smooth out any air bubble that float to the surface.  I let the base icing dry for 24 hours before I start the detail decorating process.

After the base is dry, I piped on some cheeks with pink tinted icing, and some faces with black.

Next I piped on a little bow tie.  Sugarbelle used a Wilton Leaf tip #67, but even at the stiff consistency my icing wouldn't hold the leaf shape so I just made a flat bow tie shape.  For the center of the tie I just used some preformed circular sugar sprinkles from Wilton.

Final touches included the orange nose and buttons, and the white lines around the head and arms (all tip #1).  In hindsight I should have used a #2 tip for the white lines; they needed to be a little thicker.

So a cute little cookies that weren't too stressful or time consuming to make.  And while they don't looks as good as Sugarbelle's they are pretty good for me.



Happy Decorating,

Carol

Engagement Cookie Overload

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

While everyone else in the good old US of A was preparing for their Thanksgiving feast, I was hunkered down assembling and decorating a hundred engagement cookies!!  Why oh why did the bride-to-be schedule her party on the Saturday after Thanksgiving?

I had planned ahead and baked, partially decorated, and froze the cookies a few weeks prior, but on the day before Thanksgiving I was madly making fondant flowers and embellishing my mini masterpieces.

I experimented and made a few cookies using 4 different plaque/frame cutters.  One frame cutter by Ann Clark had a long, narrow shape that was perfect for writing out a message.

The other plaque cutters came in a set of three that were also very cute.  BTW, the bride's color is blush.

I had some cookies in the "Stick Couple" design...

And some in the "Save the Date Design"...  Oops sorry I didn't take a picture of that one.

I had some Snuggling Doves...

And some Mini Wedding Cakes.  Actually a lot of mini cakes.  When I was planning the cookies I thought these were the cutest design, but my finished minis didn't turn out as precious-looking as I had hoped. 

I guess in the end my favorite turned out to be a simple round cookie decorated with a bouquet of flowers.  

Simple and elegant.  Not too busy and not over the top.  If I every have to make another batch of engagement cookies, I just going to make these.

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Snuggling Lovebirds - Engagement Party Cookies

Disclosure: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

I needed to make some cookies for a friend's engagement party, and I saw these precious little snuggling Lovebird cookies.  They didn't look too complicated, so I decided to give them a try.

Now I'm not an experienced cookie decorator, so it was a painstaking and time-consuming task for me...

I used Toba Garrett's Glace Icing (Royal Icing with equal parts milk and corn syrup) as described in her book Creative Cookies, and I used Wilton Icing Gel for the teal color, and AmeriColor gel for the bright white and black.

 In this closeup you can see that the teal blue flooding glaze is a little splotchy.  I actually made these ahead of time and froze them.  The freezing worked great except for the splotchy-ness of the blue.  I don't know if the problem was the type of glaze used (corn syrup), the thin, flooding consistency of the glaze, or the type of color (Wilton).  I will have to do some experimenting to find out what is causing the problem.

But the splotchy blue was not that noticeable so I kept decorating.  Pink cheeks, brown branch, orange nose and tiny orange toes.  All of these were colored using Wilton gels. 

And after a few grueling hours ;-) I managed to churn out eight cookies.  But they still looked a little plain. 

So I took some little fondant flower I had made for some other cookies and gave the bride dove a little bouquet.  Now that looks better.

I just hope the bride-to-be likes them.  But hey, what's not to like about snuggling lovebirds?

Happy Decorating,

Carol

Ovenly’s Vegan Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

The newest addition to my baking bookshelf is Ovenly  by  Agatha Kulagr and Erin Patinkin, and my first test subject from the book is the Vegan Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Don’t you just love chocolate chip cookies? Here, have one…

Now what makes this recipe different is the fact that it is Vegan, and pretty tasty to boot. It uses the standard dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt . . .

but it substitutes all the traditional dairy products (milk, butter, eggs) with canola oil and water.

I was a little skeptical that oil and water would combine, but after a minute of brisk whisking a smooth mixture was formed.

The chefs/owners of Ovenly Bakery stress that after mixing the dough you must let it chill for at least 12 hours before you bake it.  I'm not sure why it needs to be chilled.  Normally you chill to re-solidify the butter in the cookie recipe which helps it hold its shape, but this recipe just has oil.  Does oil solidify when it gets cold?  Where is Alton Brown when you need him!  I also found (unsurprisingly) that the dough was on the oily side.  When you form theses cookies make sure you have a towel handy, because your hands will get very slick.

But of course I was too impatient to wait more than an hour or two before baking up a few test subjects. Here are the little gems hot out of the oven. Golden brown and dotted with molten chocolate bliss.  I didn't have any coarse salt to sprinkle on them, so these are the unsalted version.

I actually managed to let them cool a bit before I popped one into my mouth. Hummm.... They were good, very tasty in fact, but I found them, how can I describe this … I found the texture of the cookie a tad oily and a little "loose".   The oily I can understand (the recipe called for 1/2 cup of canola oil), but it seemed that without the dairy the cookie didn't have anything to bind it together. The cookie just seemed to melt in your mouth without any chewing required. Melt in your mouth is not necessarily a bad thing, but I do like a little chew in my chocolate chip cookie. I wonder if chilling the dough for 24 hours will have any impact on the texture of the cookie...

 ~ 23 hours later ~

This time I followed the instructions to the letter.  I formed the dough into little pucks, popped them in the freezer for 10 minutes, and sprinkled them with coarse salt.

And the results were about the same.  I didn't see much difference between the cookies I chilled for 2 hours compared to the ones chilled for 23.  Same loose, melt in your mouth texture.  BUT much to my surprise I DID like the addition of the salt to the cookie.  With each bite I got this hint of salt mixed with the sweet of the cookie and chocolate.  It was like a brain teaser.  My mind didn't know whether to focus on the salt or the sweet.  The confusion kept me wanting more.  Very interesting phenomena.

So the final verdict from my family and myself...  Good cookies, very, very good cookies, but not the absolute best.  My favorite chocolate chip cookie is still the Mock Mrs. Field's also known as the Neiman-Marcus $250 Chocolate Chip Cookie that has ground oats and grated chocolate in the mix.

The next time I try this recipe I will throw in a some ground oats and some grated chocolate. That might dethrone the Mock Mrs. Field's cookie as my all time favorite!

Here is a link to the Ovenly Vegan Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies as published in Vogue Magazine.

Happy Baking,

Carol

Update (10-5-2014):  I baked a batch for a Saints Game Day Party, and these cookies were a huge, huge hit.  Everyone loved them!  There were no vegans at the party but there were who were several lactose intolerant.  The LI people now want these cookies baked for every sporting event.   And thankfully the Saints did win the game in OT what a nail biter.

---

---

Low-Carb (Chocolate-Chip) Peanut Butter Cookie - Disaster with Isomalt (or maybe not)

I was reading the recipe book: Low Carb Desserts by Martha McBride, and I noticed a lot of the recipes used Isomalt instead of granulated Splenda. The Isomalt is a sugar alcohol which has a lot less (net) carbs than the Splenda.

(Note: some sources believe that sugar alcohol should not be "netted out" and all the carbs from sugar alcohol should be counted in your daily intake.)

I didn’t realize I could bake with Isomalt so I purchased some crystals and immediately mixed up a batch of my yummy Low-Carb (Chocolate-Chip) Peanut Butter Cookies; subbing the granulated Splenda for Isomalt.

From the begining the cookie dough looked strange. The Isomalt crystals were large and were very obvious in the dough. (Note: Later I found that you could get Isomalt Powder. Stupid me.)

But at this point I still had high hopes. I figured the crystals would melt during baking, and my PB cookies would look fine.

Well let’s just say they didn’t look fine. Some of the crystals did melt, but not in the way I expected. After about 8 minutes in the oven I checked the cookies and found each cookie surrounded by a pool of ooey-gooey, bubbling mess. (Sorry I didn’t get a picture. I was too freaked out.) When I pulled the cookies out of the oven the gooey mess hardened and trapped my cookies into an Isomalt candy sheet. (Cool science experiment, but a depressing baking experience.) I roughly cut the cookies out of their Isomalt trap...

And then carefully trimmed the rubbery substance from the edge of each cookie. I wanted to cry. All that beautiful PB wasted.

After I dried my tears I tasted a cookie.   Hmmmm...   Not too bad.  A little chewer than they normally are but still good. I had another, and then a third (and possibly a fourth). Maybe the Isomalt did have a place in my kitchen.

But then the rumbling in my tummy started. My gut started to twist and cramp. It dawned on me that the Isomalt was SUGAR ALCOHOL, and I had eaten four of those little cookies. If any of you have overindulged in sugar-free candy, you know what I was going through. The warning on the bag of Russell Stover's Sugar-Free Candy states: “Excessive consumption may cause a laxative effect.”

Believe you-me, that warning is no lie.

After my gut returned to normal I decided to make another batch just so I could get a picture of the melting Isomalt in action. But guess what?  The cookies baked up fine the second time !#@!

You can  see a little bit of the Isomalt "candy sheet" on the bottom and outer edge, but nothing like the first time.

What was going on????

The only difference with the second batch was that I cut it down in size (1/4 batch), AND I forgot to put the vanilla extract in the mix. Could the vanilla extract have caused the Isomalt to ooze, or was something else at work?  It is a mystery of cosmic proportions. 

But the mystery will have to remain unsolved cause I'm all out of peanut butter, and I have a ton of PB cookies to eat.  But I learned my lesson!!  Only 2 cookies a day.  That sugar alcohol is a killer.
 

Below is my tried-and-true PB cookie recipe.  Substitute Isomalt if you are curious/brave.

---

Low-Carb (Chocolate-Chip) Peanut Butter Cookies

Makes 30 cookies, 67 g total; 2.2 g carbs each 

Ingredients:

1 cup low sugar peanut butter (I use Simply Jif at 2 net carbs per Tablespoon) -32 g carbs
1 cup granulated Splenda -24 g carbs
1 large egg, beaten - 0.5 g carbs
1 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream - 1 g carbs
1 tsp vanilla - 1.5 g carbs
1/2 cup Hershey's Sugar Free Semi-Sweet Baking Chips (optional) - 8 g net carbs (add 56 g if you don't believe in subtracting out the sugar alcohol)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a bowl combine peanut butter, Splenda, egg, cream, and vanilla. Stir until combined.
• Add the chocolate chip and gently stir until evenly mixed.
• Drop 1 tablespoon of cookie dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Allow two inches between cookies.  (I use a small ice cream scoop to get them all the same size.)
• Gently flatten the cookie tops..
• Bake for 12 minutes are until golden brown.

Enjoy...

---

---