Madhouse recipe : Mary Berry's Chocolate & Cherry Biscuits

I don't really know why, but ever since Madhouse Daddy died just over a year ago, I've got out of the habit of cooking (as in trying out new recipes) and baking. There's no real reason - maybe just tiredness or a lack of time because of all the extra running around or just a general lack of enthusiasm ? Well, whatever the reason, over the bank holiday, I dusted off my bookshelf and went looking for some new recipes to try out. The kids have already munched their way through the entire contents of the biscuit tin with lots of enthusiastic mumbles, so I'll have to keep it up !

This recipe came from Mary Berry Foolproof Cooking and, as there was no accompanying photo, I wasn't sure how they'd turn out. They were a great success though and used up a tub of glacé cherries that were going sticky in the back of the cupboard !

Mary Berry's Chocolate & Cherry Biscuits

(makes 16 biscuits)

ingredients:

100g butter

50g caster sugar

125g self-raising flour

15g cocoa powder

75g glacé cherries,chopped + 8 cherries, halved

icing sugar (for dusting - optional)

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the sugar and butter into a bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon.

 

Chop the cherries. Add the flour, cherries and cocoa powder and stir together with the spoon.

I thought this looked way too dry to come together into a dough, but get your hands in there and it will work !

Ta-da ! You'll soon have a workable dough coming together.

Divide into two balls, then split each ball into eight pieces. Lay them on two baking sheets lined with baking paper and use a fork to press them down until about 1cm thick. I had planned on just pressing round the edges but Pierre did it all over the top, which actually looked quite cool !

Bake for 10-12 minutes until just cooked (be careful as they will start to burn very easily) then, while they're still soft, press half a glacé cherry into the top of each biscuit.

Allow to cool for five minutes then remove to a wire rack to cool completely and go firm. Once cold, dust with icing sugar if you like. (The kids had already munched half of them before I got a chance so we didn't bother !)

Umm, it must be about time (or, should I say, actually long overdue) for a relaunch of the #KitchenClearout linky ! This recipe can go in as it used up some (very sticky) glacé cherries and some cocoa powder. I'll sort a blog post out in the next few days, if you have anything to add to the linky :)