Dark Chocolate & Orange Biscuits

I genuinely wonder how these would fair with coffee - I don't drink it myself.  These would be amazing at the end of a meal with a glass of port.  This I know as there was a little excessive quality control testing on my part with these.  As always when dealing with chocolate get the best quality chocolate and cocoa you can.  Drinking Chococolate is not a suitable substitute in this recipe

Ingredients:
50g Plain Flour
25g Cocoa (I used Green & Blacks)
1 orange
50g Butter
25g Sugar
25g Dark Chocolate

Method:

1. Using a sharp paring knife peel a piece of orange rind from the top of the orange to the base being careful to take as little of the pith (the white part under the skin) with you. On a cutting board shred that into fine slivers.  Grate the remainder of the rind on the finest part of the grater again being careful to avoid the pith.
2. Cream butter and sugar and add orange zest and slivers.
3. Sieve Cocoa and Flour together to blend and remove lumps.  Add two thirds to the butter sugar mix in batches and mix well.
4. Chop Dark Chocolate quite fine (these biscuits will be rolled out quite thinly) add to the remaining flour before adding whole lot into the biscuit dough and mixing well
5. Form a large ball with the dough, wrap it in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 mins
6. Preheat the oven to 190C
7. Roll out thinly and cut with a glass or cookie cutters.  Bake on a baking sheet in the oven for 10mins.
8. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 mins before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Orange and Lavender Cookies

This is the place where I would have entered a recipe about Lavender and Orange biscuits but the following happened - I tasted them!  I had seen the combination in a recipe book in cake form and thought to myself wow that really is something pretty wonderful and applied the same logic in an appropriate ratio.  Nasty Nasty Nasty

Shortbread Jam Rings (Jammie Dodgers)

200g Butter
75g Icing Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract
200g Self Raising Flour
Pinch of salt
Jam

1. Soften the butter in the microwave and then beat together with the icing sugar until it is very soft.  Add the vanilla extract and mix through.
2. Stir in the flour and roll into a ball.  Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes
3. Preheat oven to 180C.
4. Roll out on a floured surface to 3mm thick.  Cut matching 'tops' and 'bottoms'.  On the tops cut a hole in the centre with a small cutter (I have a little heart).
5. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 mins.  Leave them to cool slightly on the baking tray before transferring them to the cooling rack.
6. Melt about four tablespoons of jam in the microwave for about 30seconds. Stir well it should be soft enough to sandwich two layers together.
7. To decorate sprinkle with icing sugar.

Camomile shortbread

These have a really subtle but pleasant flavour.  Highly recommended if in need of chilling out.  I used vanilla sugar instead of sugar and vanilla extract.

1tbsp Dried Camomile Flowers finely chopped
225g butter
140g Sugar
1egg yolk
280g Flour

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. Stir in the flowers then beat in the egg yolk.

3. Add the flour and mix until a dough forms. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge

4. Roll out on a floured surface. Cut out using a cookie cutter.

5. Bake for 10mins at 190c

Alternatives:
Try using a tablespoonful of limeflowers or elderflowers

Butter

Ever wonder why butter is yellow in Ireland?
Many years ago I went to San Francisco to see a friend of mine.  One of the things that surprised me was the colour of Butter, it was white -it never occurred to me that butter would come in different shades.  I have since come to understand that the white butter is made from the cream of corn fed cattle.  Due to the climate in Ireland we have plenty of Omega 3 and Beta Carotene rich grass on which the cattle feed. Beta-Carotene is the good stuff that gives carrots, pumpkins and sweet potatoes their colour and is what gives butter its yellowish tinge.

• Butter - Made by churning cream with salt added for flavour. 
• Unsalted Butter - As above but without the salt
• Spreadable Butter - A little oil is added to make it easier to spread
• Ghee / Clarified Butter -This is butter that has been heated and the impurities and salt taken out.  Unlike regular butter it does not burn.  It is often used in Indian cookery.
• Dairy Spreads - Not suitable for baking
• Margarine