Whenever I'm in the shop, I find myself magnetically drawn to these little beauties. I have such a thing for chocolate. I may stray when my tree is full of lemons, but I will always return to my dark master: the cocoa bean (that's actually a Seinfeld quote. See: the references just seem to follow me about). Our chocolate is from Belcolade. I challenge you to browse through that website without feeling the chocolate love. Of course, there are a grillion products on the site which we don't receive in Australia, but you only need to know about one: the buttons. Oh, how I love the buttons....
The gorgeous thing about the buttons is their practicality. I have so so many recipes which call for chocolate chips. Chips? Ha! Are you going to go and buy those things in the supermarket cake / baking aisle? Why don't you just help yourself to some instant frosting, while you're there? No no no, I don't think so. Here's the trick: you buy the drops, put them in a zip-lock bag, then bang them with a rolling pin. Now, this might sound like more work than opening the blasphemous supermarket-bought chocolate chip bag and just pouring, but the difference in taste is extraordinary. You will suddenly discover how wonderful home-baked chocolate goods can be. A choc-chip biscuit will never taste the same. This chocolate melts beautifully in a double-boiler situation, but will hold its shape if you use a single button on a biscuit or break them up into pieces. For some ultra-luxury, buy all three varieties and make choc-chip biscuits with the three different sorts combined. Mmmmm....
I do have a favourite biscuit recipe, for which I use the dark drops. I've only ever tried it with dark, as I can't imagine how it could possibly be improved by substituting another variety. If memory serves correctly (but why would it?), the recipe came from a Vogue Entertaining and Travel about a decade ago. For this, you will need 500g of chocolate drops, 125g of which you need to belt with the rolling pin as per the above "method".
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Biscuits
1 1/4 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
500g dark chocolate buttons (125g broken)
125g unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
Preheat the oven to 180C. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. In a double boiler, melt the butter with 375g of the chocolate, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Stir in the eggs one at a time (not beating) until well combined, then stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Chill the dough for minimum 10 minutes (I find the closer you can get to an hour, the better the consistency).
Drop rounded teaspoon measures of the dough, about 3.5cm apart, onto a greased and lined baking sheet, and stud each one with pieces of the remaining chocolate. Bake in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes or until just set (only do one tray at a time). Cool the biscuits on the tray on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then transfer with a spatula to the rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
PS I've always found that sticking precisely to the times has worked out the best.
So, there it is. No excuses for bad chocolate, and now no excuses for average biscuits. They come out a bit wonky, but that's the charm. For a winning dessert, stick two together with a sandwich of luxury icecream. How's that for a little kick?
Oh, and have you noticed I only use biscuit? I refuse to use cookie. I do not need my biscuit barrel permeated by baked goods in backwards-facing baseball caps.
