Chocolate and Raspberry Cream Biscuits

These biscuits are quick to make in the food processor and can be made very small or somewhat bigger. The very small ones are perfect on sweet platters for finger food functions. I usually make lots of  these and put them in the freezer, I find that they retain better flavour if frozen, are less likey to crumble and they defrost quite quickly. Truly determined or desperate people have been known to eat them frozen.  If you are a coffee lover, coffee icing is even better.

Chocolate and Raspberry Cream Biscuits

Biscuits 185 g soft butter 1 cup self raising flour 1/4 cup cornflour 1/4 cup cocoa, preferably dark/Dutch 1/3 cup pure icing sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Icing 2 cups pure icing sugar 2 tablespoons soft butter 1 -2 teaspoons of raspberry pulp* The pulp is what is left in the sieve when I puree raspberries for a sauce/coulis. I save it as little frozen ice cubes and defrost a cube when I need it. Use vanilla extract or a teaspoon of instant coffee dissolved in a little vanilla instead of the raspberry

Method

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until mixture comes together as a smooth ball. An alternative is to cream the butter and sugar then add the remaining ingredients.

Roll teaspoons of the mixture into small balls, place on a tray covered with cooking parchment and flatten with your fingers or a fork.

Bake 170 deg for 15 minutes or a little longer if you think they are not quite cooked. Biscuits are ready when they can be lifted from the tray and look cooked on the bottom.

 Remove from oven and allow biscuits to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

When cold, sandwich pairs of biscuits with raspberry icing or other flavour of your choice.

To Make Icing

Place ingredients in food processor and blitz. The mixture should be thick and only just spreadable so add the pulp or essence by the teaspoon.

the dough should look like this

roll teaspoons of the mixture, 

place on tray and flatten