I’m a bit obsessed with mint chocolate at the moment.
Up until about a month ago, I would have avoided most kinds of mint chocolate. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, I started craving it.
It began with a craving for dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate (highly unusual for me) as I sat here, typing away.
Next, when I went to buy some dark chocolate, I was drawn to the mint variety. From there began a veritable quest for the best mint chocolate around.
And then the inevitable question of what mint chocolate creations to bake.
I find that mint chocolate is best in a small, intense hit, so very dark, very chocolatey biscuits came to mind first.
My chocolate macadamia biscuits set the bar pretty high in terms of chocolate-intensity but I wanted more of a snap, more like a chocolate than a cookie.
I adapted a Felicity Cloake ‘How to cook the perfect …’ recipe for chocolate biscuits, learning in the process that chilling the dough gives the flavours chance to deepen.
Then things took a different direction. I ditched the chocolate chips, upped the cocoa, rolled the biscuits really thin and covered them in dark chocolate, feathered with mint fondant.
I dipped the biscuits in dark chocolate but I think next time I’d use a brush for a neater, thinner coating.
That said, thick chocolate is never a big problem ….
Makes about 30 small biscuits
Biscuits
- 75g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 75g caster sugar
- 35g golden syrup
- 1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
- 100g plain flour
- 30g cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Coating and decoration
- 200g dark chocolate
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- icing sugar
Biscuits
Beat together the butter, sugar and syrup until light and fluffy.
Add the peppermint extract and mix to combine.
Next sieve the flour, cocoa powder and salt and add to the minty, sugary butter before mixing again to make a dough.
Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in fridge for 30 minutes or more to let the flavours develop.
When you’re ready to bake the biscuits, switch the oven on to 170°C.
If the dough has only had 30 minutes in the fridge, you’ll probably be able to roll it out straight away. If it’s had longer, take it out of the fridge a bit ahead of time to soften up enough to roll.
Roll it out as thinly as you can manage, by using two sheets of clingfilm, one underneath and one on top of the dough. Alternatively, use a little icing sugar on the work surface and rolling pin to stop it sticking.
Cut out discs as small or large as you like and arrange them on a lined baking tray.
Bake the biscuits until crisp – for approximately 12 mins. You’re looking out for a very slight change of colour at the edge of the biscuits closest to the back. They will harden up as they cool but can be put back in the oven for a couple of minutes if you try a cooled one and find that it’s a bit soft.
Coating and decoration
When the biscuits are completely cold, melt the dark chocolate and, separately, mix together the mint fondant to drizzle across the top. For this, measure a teaspoon of mint extract into a small bowl, add a tablespoon of water and then enough icing sugar to make a runny, drizzle-able paste.
Either dip the biscuits into the chocolate and remove the excess chocolate with your finger or a palette knife or, for a neater finish, paint a couple of layers of dark chocolate on top with a brush. Straight away, before the chocolate sets hard, drizzle lines of mint fondant across the chocolate. Then drag a tooth pick in lines that cut across the mint fondant stripes in alternating directions to feather the tops.
Leave the chocolate to set hard and keep the biscuits in an airtight container to keep them crisp.