Spiced Biscuits with Dark Chocolate
Festive Spiced Biscuits with Orange & Cinnamon
These festive Spiced Biscuits would be a lovely gift for Christmas, or any other time of the year! Homemade gifts are a thoughtful way to celebrate Christmas, plus they can be frugal and you can even learn a new skill. Simply package them in a jar or tin, then not only have you given a delicious treat but the jar or tin can be re-used.
Simple to make and fun for children too!
The festive biscuits are spiced with cinnamon and orange zest then dipped in dark chocolate for a decadent treat. The biscuit itself has a shortbread-like consistency, sweet and buttery with a nice bite. The toppings suggested are optional. You could also use Christmas biscuit cutters if you have them to hand and get creative with the decoration!
These are really simple to make so would be fun for children to join in with the baking over the Christmas break.
Tip: You can also make ginger biscuits by simply swapping the cinnamon for 2 tsp ground ginger and leaving out the orange zest. These pair with the dark chocolate and some chopped crystallised ginger really well.
Spiced Biscuits with Orange & Dark Chocolate
Ingredients
- 125g butter – from the fridge, chopped into cubes
- 125g granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Zest of 1 orange
- 100g dark chocolate
Optional toppings
- 15g crystallised ginger – chopped
- 15g chopped nuts
Instructions
- Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, half the orange zest and cinnamon then mix the dry ingredients into the butter using your fingertips to create a breadcrumb-like consistency. Then start to bring the mixture together until a ball of dough is formed.
- Roll into a rough sausage shape about 10 inches long. Wrap in film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Pre-heat the oven to 160C. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice your dough into approximately 2cm discs. On some baking parchment or lightly floured surface, flatten out with your hand then gently roll these out to about 1.5cm deep 8cm wide circles. You can leave the edges rough or use a biscuit cutter to trim the edges. Any excess dough you can re-form into into discs.
- Place your biscuits on the lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. You may need to do these in batches. Once the biscuits start to turn a light brown take them out of the oven to cool for a couple of minutes so the biscuits harden up before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
- Melt the dark chocolate then spread half the biscuit generously with the chocolate and sprinkle with some of the remaining orange zest, if using, crystallised ginger or chopped nuts. Store in an airtight container, these keep for up 5 days.
MORE RECIPE IDEAS
You can find more tasty food ideas on my blog Cook Shoot and Share. For some more baking ideas check out this Fig & Mushroom Galette. You can also take a look at my Instagram too where you can keep up to date with recipes I make. Find the recipe over on the 91 Magazine blog here!