Chocolate Shortbreads

Q: What do you get when you combine a very rich, thick, butter cookie with chocolate?
A: A little bit of heaven in your mouth!

This particular recipe did not come from an internet search engine, nor from an online forum. This recipe came from a children's book that Ethan borrowed from his school library. The book is called "Fort Biscuits" by Leslie Howarth.

Ethan insisted that we try out the very simple cookie recipe at the end of the story, and because it was so simple, and because we literally had all the ingredients at hand, we did. Since then, I've made quite a few batches of this delicious biscuit/cookie. Essentially the biscuit is a Chocolate Shortbread. It crumbles in your mouth into a chocolatey goodness! And YES, flavanols in chocolates have been found to be good for both the brain. Yummy brain-food, anyone?

Although the recipe actually calls for the biscuit to be rolled into balls and pressed into shape with a fort fork, I've found that using a cookie cutter makes the biscuit very pretty. Since I was baking this for Chinese New Year on Valentine's Day, I decided to use the heart-shaped cookie cutter to get this:

Pretty hearts all in ready for the ovenA mouthful of heaven in every bite!

Fort Biscuits (Chocolate Shortbread)

Ingredients
180g butter or margarine
60g icing sugar
120g plain flour
60g cornflour
30g cocoa powder
½ tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. Preheat oven to 190°C
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Add flour, cornflour and cocoa powder.
4. Add vanilla essence.
5. Knead into a soft dough.
6. Roll dough into walnut sized balls.
7. Place on baking tray and press down lightly with wet fork.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
9. Dust with icing sugar when cooled.
10. Store in an air-tight container when biscuits are cooled thoroughly.

The chocolate shortbreads go very well with a tall glass of ice-cold milk or milo.

Excuse me while I brush chocolate crumbs off my laptop.