Chocolate and Orange Sandwich Biscuits

I appear to be in a biscuit mood this week.  I've just had an urge to make them.  First the Peek Freans, and now these.  I also seem to have developed a thing for sandwiches.  

These are for the fiancé and his friends.  Being in a biscuit mood, these were picked from the biscuit book and something that looked interesting but wasn't too experimental since it involved flavours that have proved popular before.  The biscuits themselves were very easy to make.  It was a good dough, which could be shaped easily.  Really, the hardest part with making the biscuits was finely chopping 100g of dark chocolate.  That was surprisingly tiring.  They also took a while to bake as I had to do it in four batches.

The cream was also fairly easy, though somehow mine ended up being quite runny, which meant when I first tried to use it, it just spilt over the sides of the biscuits.  I had to put it in the fridge to firm up before it worked properly.  I also decided to colour mine, because whilst Milky Bar white chocolate is divine tasting, it turned the cream a rather horrible colour, rather than the nice white look it has in the book.  So I thought making it orange would be more appealing.  It went well with the dark biscuits at least.

I did lose a couple of biscuits, which was shame.  The bottoms of the first batch burnt due to leaving them on the tray to cool like the book suggested (hence I didn't do it with the other three batches) and in trying to remove the burnt part, one cookie crumbled to pieces.  I should have let it cool a bit more so it wasn't as soft.  The other escaped during the filling stage and ended up on the floor.  It was quite annoying.

The tasters' verdict was that they were absolutely delicious.  The filling went really well with the biscuits and they were all gobbled up.  

Recipe - adapted from Cookie Jar

Makes about 15

Biscuits:

• 225g/8oz butter
• 140g/5oz caster sugar
• 2 tsp orange extract
• 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g/9oz plain flour
• 25g/1oz cocoa powder
• Pinch of salt
• 100g/3.5oz plain chocolate, finely chopped

Filling:

• 125ml/4fl.oz double cream
• 200g/7oz white chocolate
• 1 tsp orange extract
• Orange food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line 2-4 baking trays with greaseproof paper (it depends on the size of your oven and thus the size of your trays).
2. Mix the butter, sugar and orange extract in a large bowl.
3. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla extract.
4. Sift together the flour and cocoa and salt, and add to the mix, followed by the finely chopped dark chocolate and stir until well combined.  You should get quite a thick paste.
5. Scoop out tablespoons of dough and roll into balls.  Flatten each ball slightly and place on the trays, spacing about 1 inch apart.  They don't spread too much in the oven.  You want about 30 biscuits, or at least an even number. (I only managed 28).
6. Bake for about 10-15 minutes.  They will still be slightly soft when they come out but will firm up as they cool.  Transfer them to a wire rack to do this.
7. Make the filling by bringing the cream to a boil in a small saucepan and then removing from the heat.
8. Add the chocolate, stirring until it has melted and the mixture is smooth.
9. Add the orange extract, and food colouring if using, and stir in.
10. Allow mixture to cool completely before using.  If very runny after this point, put in the fridge for about 20 minutes to firm up.
11. Put a dollop of filling in the middle of the underside of one biscuit.  Don't fill all the way to the edge because it will spill out when you make the sandwich.  Top with another, squeezing them together gently to spread the filling out.  Repeat until all biscuits are filled.