BADA BING!
A caramel lover’s delight — chocolate cookies with a runny caramel centre and creamy caramel frosting, dipped in milk chocolate. It took a while to find a name for this one, but while highway driving one day, we pulled up along a pimped prime mover that had the lady mud flaps that say, ‘Bada bing!’, so we stole it.
MAKES 12 BISCUITS
CHOCOLATE COOKIES
160 g (5½ oz) pastry flour, sifted
40 g (1½ oz) Dutch-processed cocoa powder, sifted
60 g (2¼ oz) icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted
120 g (4¼ oz) butter
a pinch of sea salt
1 egg
Rub together the sifted flour, cocoa, icing sugar, butter and salt, to a fine crumb. Add the egg and mix as little as possible to bring the dough together. Wrap into 3–4 manageable portions and chill in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours; the dough will easily keep for several days.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºC/Gas 4). Line two baking trays with baking paper.
Roll out the dough to about 3 mm (1/8 inch) thick and cut into 24 oblongs, about 3 x 10 cm (1¼ x 4 inches) in size.
Place on the baking trays and bake for about 10 minutes. It is difficult to tell if the dough is cooked, so gently try to move the biscuits on the tray; if they move easily, remove from the oven and cool on the tray.
TO ASSEMBLE
1 quantity of creamy vanilla frosting
½ quantity of salty caramel
450 g (1 lb) milk chocolate, chopped
50 ml (1½ fl oz) vegetable oil
Make the frosting and add 50 g (1¾ oz) of the salty caramel.
Pipe a ring of frosting around the edge of half the biscuits, then put a spoonful of the remaining salty caramel in the centre and pop a lid on top. Leave to firm for about 30 minutes.
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of just simmering water, ensuring the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Add the oil and mix until fully emulsified.
Submerge the biscuits in the melted chocolate one at a time, draining off any excess, before placing them on a lined tray to set.
The biscuits will keep in an airtight container in a cool dark place for up to 1 week.