Chocolate iced biscuits recipe

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This Chocolate Iced Biscuits Recipe is really easy to make and have great chocolate taste. The decorating does take a bit of time, but you can always keep things simple or don’t decorate them at all. Perfect recipe to make for gifts.

Why make this recipe?

Excellent chocolate version of the regular iced biscuits
Firm biscuits perfect for decorating
Great to give as a presents or token gifts for parties, weddings or other celebrations

MORE CHOCOLATE BISCUITS RECIPES

My top tips on making this recipe successfully the first time round

Measure out the ingredients properly using digital scales
Use greaseproof paper to roll out your dough
Chill the dough after you’ve rolled it out flat
Flavour your icing with complimenting or contrasting flavour
Leave the biscuits to dry out completely before packaging

Time saving tip

If you want to give them away or share them, it’s best to make them the day before (or at least 24 hrs in advance) because the icing does need time to dry and harden.

You could speed up the process by drying them in oven on a very, very low temperature (say 30-40 C), but I always find it dries the biscuits at the same time, which is not what you want, so be careful.

If you don’t have the time, you can always skip the icing decorations and just add a rolled out fondant. I find that painting the fondant icing can be quicker than drawing with liquid icing (and it certainly dries quicker).

What makes this recipe work

The ratio of butter to flour is what gives this biscuit recipe that great flavour.
Flavouring your icing with complimenting flavour will make these chocolate biscuits really special
This recipe doesn’t have any raising agent (baking soda or baking powder) which makes them really nice and flat – perfect for your decorating

Any specialist equipment needed?

Greaseproof paper
Biscuits cutter of your choice (or go freehand with a small kitchen knife)
Rolling Pin
Pipping bag
Pipping tips & sugar craft tools (optional)
Edible colours (optional)

Pro tip

If you don’t have a pipping bag, use a small spoon to spread the icing on to your biscuits or use a sturdy plastic bag (with cut of corner)

Ingredients

Butter – unsalted
Sugar – caster
Egg – medium
Vanilla extract
Flour – plain (all purpose)
Cocoa powder

Decorative icing flavour ideas

All these flavour go well with the chocolate biscuits flavour base. I usually just add a few drops of the flavouring essence or oil to the icing as I’m mixing it. Taste it before you use your icing to check if the flavour is strong enough for you.

Orange essence
Mint essence
Coffee – add granulated coffee powder
Vanilla essence or paste

The method – Instructions

Preparing the dough

First of all – either in a mixer or with a handheld whisk, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until they are well combined.

Add flour to the bowl and mix until all the ingredients just come together. The dough is going go be fairly firm at this stage, but that’s fine. The dough needs to rest before you roll it out and bake it, so tip it out and wrap in a clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Rolling out the dough

The next step is to roll out the dough into about 5 mm (or thicker – I used to make these biscuits at least 8 mm). Take two large greaseproof papers and roll out half (or third) of the dough between them.

You can try to roll the dough out without the greaseproof papers, but I found that this is much easier (the dough can be quite sticky) and I always use the papers to line the baking trays, so that there is no waste. It will also prevent you from adding extra flour for dusting (which can make the biscuits quite dry).

Chilling the dough

If you have the time, you can put the rolled out dough back to fridge before you cut out your biscuit shapes. This makes the dough much easier to handle and your biscuits are not going to expand too much when you get to bake them.

When you are ready, use biscuits cutters to cut out your shapes and place (with plenty of space between) on a baking tray.

Baking

Bake the biscuits in a preheated oven at 180C (gas mark 4) for about 7-10 minutes. The timing depends on the size and thickness of your biscuits, but the final colour should be golden brown. Leave them to cool on a cooling rack and store in airtight container until you are ready to decorate them.

Decorating

To decorate my chocolate biscuits, I used several icing techniques. The simples way to decorate the biscuit is to roll out a fondant to a thin layer and cut out the same shape as your biscuits. Then use apricot or other lightly coloured jam to brush the biscuit and stick the fondant on the top. The next step is to mix some icing and then pipe decorations (swirls, lines etc.0

To mix the icing, just use either water (or lemon juice) and icing sugar mixed to a thinner paste. If you are using ‘flood’ icing technique, you need to have even runnier icing.

If I want my icing to be quite strong, I sometimes add egg white, but since the egg white is raw, you need to be careful if you are thinking of these biscuits for children.

Depending on how much icing you need, mix smaller amount of your liquid with icing sugar and continue to add more icing sugar as you stir. I tend to just use mixing bowl and large soup spoon to mix the icing, but you could put all this in a mixer of you wish.

Once you’ve mixed your icing, colour them to your desired shade. To get really vibrant colours, you really need to use proper fondant colours like Wilton or Sugarflair. They come in a small pots and are so concentrated that you only need a tiny amount to colour a whole batch of icing.

Use a piping bag with a number 1.5 or 2 nozzle (or large if you want) or if you don’t have piping nozzle, just cut your piping bag with a very small hole.

I first pipe all my outlines and when dry I fill them with the flood icing. Once you’ve finished your icing, leave the biscuits to dry. This can take anything up to 24 hrs (they look dry after 2 hours, but that’s just the top crust forming and the layer underneath is still soft). Our kitchen is nice and cold, which means that the biscuits soften over night and dry at the same time.

After that, they biscuits are ready to be packed, eaten or given away as a little treats and presents.

Recipe variations

Don’t like chocolate? Leave out the cocoa powder and follow the recipe without any other alternations.

You can also use something like thinned down candy melts to decorate top of your biscuits. Candy melts are slightly softer than regular chocolate which will make them perfect for this type of project.

Allergies & dietary requirements

I’ve not tested this recipe with gluten free flour or egg replacements to suit other diets.

This recipe and me

I used to make these Chocolate Iced Biscuits recipe for Down House tearooms when we had special activities organised for children, which used to be mainly at half-term holidays. I used to make them in different styles, like bugs, butterflies, flowers or hearts. The house had a special programme prepared for children which often involved discovering and identifying bugs around the house and gardens.

We thought it was rather good fun (and many little visitors agreed with us wholeheartedly!) to leave some ‘bug discovering’ for tearoom too and that’s how my chocolate biscuits shaped as butterflies and bugs appeared at Down House Tea rooms menu.

I used to make these really large and quite thick, so they were much bigger then any biscuits the children usually seen before.

Batch size

This recipe will make 15 very large and chunky biscuits and 30 normal size ones.

Can I scale up or down this recipe?

You can easily make 1/2 batch or double/triple the recipe. The only thing you’ll be limited is your kitchen/fridge space and baking trays number.

Questions & Answers

Can I make these more /less chocolatey?

Yes, of course, just add more cocoa powder (or less) and taste the dough before you start cutting it our and baking it.

Can I make these biscuits with gluten free flour?

Yes, of course, you can. You might need to change the quantity of the flour as 500g normal flour in volume is a bit different than gluten free flour (which is normally lighter). You will also need to add xanthan gum (unless it’s already in the flour mix).

I find it’s difficult to tell when these are baked, as they look so dark?

Yes, since we are baking chocolate biscuits, it’s difficult to judge the baked colour. I would suggest to set a timer for 10-12 minutes for medium sized biscuit and slightly less or more for smaller or bigger biscuits.

My biscuits lost shape when I baked them, where did I go wrong?

This is usually because the biscuits need proper chilling in the fridge before baking and then go to the oven on exact pre-heated temperature. Try to chill the dough when you make it and then again when you roll out the biscuits and just before they go to the oven. If you are not sure whether they are cold enough, leave them for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

Can I use chocolate instead of cocoa powder in this recipe?

Using chocolate bar would throw the proportions of this recipe, so use just cocoa powder for this recipe. It’s much stronger in flavour and since it doesn’t contain any butter, it blends in nicely with the butter already in the recipe.

Can I use margarine instead of butter?

The key ingredients is the butter in this recipe, anything else will alter the flavour and texture too much (since there is quite a lot of butter in this recipe).

How to store these biscuits

Make sure that your chocolate biscuits are completely dry before you wrap them or store them away. If you are just keeping them for yourself, place the biscuits between a sheets of greaseproof paper and in a large air tight tin or container. They won’t stick, but they could scoff, so the greaseproof paper protects your lovely icing and decorations.

If you are giving them as gifts, just wrap them individually in a cellophane bags.

Shelf-life

These chocolate biscuits have a good shelf life – they will be fine for 3-4 days, but if you prevent them from drying out, they will be perfectly O.K for at least 7 days.

They will just dry out more if you leave them for longer, but they don’t really go off as such. I’ve never had anyone complaining that their biscuits would go off before they had the chance to eat them.

Why not stay in touch…

I hope you enjoy making this recipe and if you do, I’d love to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram or Facebook and add the hashtag #cocoaandheart so that I can see your post.

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Magdalena