Minty’s Chocolate Biscuits

Minty was given a Thanksgiving project by her English teacher, Ms. Sarah – to make a dessert and document it as she made it. Minty knew she wanted to make chocolate biscuits – a quick and delicious cookie that was simple enough for us to do during our mini-break to Joshua Tree – we pre-measured the dry ingredients at home and took them with us in little baggies. I still can’t get over the crisp air and deep blue sky – here Minty is in her usual pose – upside down as she cartwheels through the desert at Barker Dam.

Enough of that and back to the  chocolate biscuits – think a chocolate McVities digestive (a popular wholemeal flour based chocolate cookie from England) – only so much better because they are homemade. You can do as we did and sandwich two together with the chocolate in the middle for a tasty snack on our journey home from Joshua Tree, or you could use them to make s’mores or even ice cream sandwiches – or just try to resist them straight up.

Measuring out the flour – 50g wholemeal and 50g plain flour:

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder:

Combine flours, salt, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. 2. Add the butter and rub in until the mixture looks like small crumbs.

then add the milk and work the mixture until it resembles a ball of dough.

3. Flour your worktop and roll dough to a 5mm thickness – we didn’t have extra flour in the desert and so we used two pieces of Saran wrap to roll out the dough – this also means the dough doesn’t take up extra flour from the counter top.

Using a cookie cutter cut the dough,

arrange on baking sheet,

poke a couple of times with a fork.

4. Let cool (in refrigerator) for 10-15 min. while you preheat oven to 325 F.

5. Bake biscuits for 10-12 mins. don’t let them get too dark, and leave to cool.

6. Melt chocolate, while the cookies cool.

When cookies are cool spread chocolate on the cookies,

and you’re done.

Before we go another glimpse of our time in Joshua Tree – with a spring in her step Minty heads off into the desert…