Bourbon Biscuits

My Dad's favourite biscuit, I've never made chocolate bourbons from scratch before. I was worried about the complexity but there aren't too many ingredients or steps.

I was surprised that there was no egg in this recipe, and without it it was a struggle to bring the dough together.

When rolling it out it just kept falling apart. I added a few drops of water to just try and get it to stick which helped, and when it cooked it cooked solid. Then I cut them whilst still warm into semi-equal sized fingers. The recipe says it makes about 15 and I cut the fingers a bit small so I ended up with 14.

I did make a quick mistake when making the filling and failed to dissolve the coffee in water, so had to fish it out and remix it later.

A piping bag helped me to fill the biscuits evenly.

The biscuits are a bit crisp, I prefer them softer, but I think I rolled the mixture too thin and baked for too long. But the filling and flavour are exactly like shop-bought chocolate bourbon biscuits.

Bourbon Biscuits

50g butter or margarine

50g caster sugar

1 tbsp golden syrup

100g plain flour

15g cocoa

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

50 butter

75g icing sugar

1 tbsp cocoa

1/2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1tsp boiling water

Line and grease a baking sheet. Set the oven at 160C / gas 3.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter or margarine with the sugar very thoroughly; beat in the golden syrup.

Sift the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a second bowl, mix well, then work into the creamed mixture to make a stiff dough.

Knead well, and roll out on a lightly-floured surface into an oblong strip about 23 x 13 and 5mm thick. Cut in half to form two rectangles about 6cm wide. Place on the prepared sheet and bake for 15-20minutes. Cut into equal sized fingers while still warm. Cool on a wire rack.

Prepare the filling. In a bowl, beat the butter until soft then add the sugar, cocoa and coffee. Beat until smooth. Sandwich the cooled fingers in pairs with the filling.