Does anybody else grumpy-bake? I certainly do. "I feel grumpy so I'm going to bake something."
This is the end product of said grumpy baking.
I initially thought these weren't anything exciting, but considering I ate four in quick succession with my cuppa I must turn around on myself and admit they're rather tasty. They remind me of McVities Boaster biscuits (do they still exist?) which I find oddly comforting as my Granny occasionally kept them in her biscuit tin.
For the chocolate chunks I used a mixture of Green and Blacks white and milk chocolate as that's what I had to hand. Surprisingly, for me, I prefer the stronger cocoa flavour of the milk chocolate against the hazelnuts and vanilla.
The original recipe says to divide the dough in half, roll into 15-18cm long rolls and freeze for 2 hours before cutting into 2-3cm discs. However I had no time or patience for such nonsense so I roughly dolloped slightly flattened knob shapes onto the trays and left in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes to firm up the butter before baking.
So the resulting biscuits are crunchy and crumbly and a bit rough and ready as opposed to the soft and chewy, regularly spherical ones pictured in the recipe book, but I'm fine with that. If anything, I prefer them this way. Their sweetness easied my grumpiness so they did their job.
Chocolate chunk hazelnut biscuits
Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's white chocolate and pecan nut cookies recipe
250g unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar
200g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
400g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
50g white chocolate chopped
50g milk chocolate chopped
100g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Beat together the butter and sugars in a large bowl for about a minute until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together in a separate bowl before adding to the egg mixture. Mix everything together until well combined and forms a smooth dough. Stir in the chocolate and nuts.
Dollop small-ish knobs of the dough onto lined baking trays (perhaps about a tablespoon in size), well spaced apart. Leave to chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes. This will keep the butter firm so it doesn't melt quickly and make the biscuits spread too much in the oven. Whilst your dough is chilling preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the edges start turning golden in colour. Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. The original recipe produces 24 biscuits/cookies but I ended up with 30-40.