Aug 31

Perfect chocolate biscuits

Prep 15 min, plus chilling
Cook 15 min
Makes About 20

100g dark chocolate
150g butter, at room temperature
130g caster sugar
70g golden syrup
215g plain flour
45g cocoa powder
½ tsp fine salt

Start by roughly chopping the chocolate into shards of the kind of size you’d like to find in a biscuit.

Put the butter in a food mixer and beat briefly to soften, then add the sugar and syrup, and beat on a medium speed for about five minutes, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until fluffy.

Meanwhile, sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. With the mixer running on a low speed, add the dry ingredients and continue mixing until everything comes together into a dough. Which it will, don’t worry.

Roll into a sausage shape about 5cm in diameter. Wrap well and chill for at least 30 minutes, and up to 10 days.

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. Cut the sausage into thin rounds and arrange, fairly well spaced out, on the trays. Bake for 25 minutes (for crisp biscuits; or 15 for squidgy, or 20 for somewhere in between), then leave to cool on the baking tray.