Chocolate Strip Cookies (Biscuits)

I know, it's highly unusual that you see chocolate baked goods in my kitchen and rarely to never that you would see them two days in a row! With a chocolate hating husband and an ever expanding waistline, it's not something that I bake very often.



I wanted to bake some cookies though, for a friend and her three daughters . . . and . . . as anyone with a speck of intelligence knows . . . chocolate speaks to a woman's heart in a very special way!



I found a recipe in one of my Pillsbury cookery books for a chocolate strip cookie. I love strip cookies. They are so easy to make. I've made vanilla ones with strawberry jam in the middles before and some delicious Mincemeat crumble ones . . . they're all very good, and easy to make as well.



These chocolate ones looked really scrummy, with a rich chocolate batter . . . stogged full of chocolate chips and white and dark chocolate drizzles over all. There was no scrummy jam filling the middle though . . .

I like jam. Especially on, in or around biscuits! (cookies)



And so, even though these cookies were not going to be with me, I decided to fill the middles with Morello Cherry Preserves. Coz . . . you know . . . I would never feed anyone else anything that I didn't totally think was incredibly scrummy myself!



I think the end result was quite, quite pleasing. They went down a bomb.



*Chocolate Strip Cookies*
Makes 4 dozen
Printable Recipe

Scrummy chocolate cookies, stogged full of chocolate chips, cherry preserves and a drizzle of white chocolate. Very quick and easy to make!

8.5 ounces plain flour (2 cups)
2 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder (not drink mix) (1/2 cup), sifted
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
150g of caster sugar (3/4 cup)
85g of soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup packed)
6 ounces butter, softened (3/4 cup)
2 large free range eggs
12 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips (2 cups)
about 6 TBS morello cherry preserves
To drizzle:
4 ounces white chocolate, cut into bits

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line two large baking sheets with baking parchent. Butter the parchment lightly. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Sift together the flour, salt, cocoa powder, and soda. Stir this into the creamed mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Shape the dough into 4 (12 inch) long logs on the baking sheets, leaving lots of space in between them for spreading. Using your thumb, make a shallow trough down the middle of each. Spoon the cherry preserves into the troughs.

Bake for 14 to 18 minutes in the heated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the centre of one of the logs comes out clean.

Remove the baking sheets to a wire rack to cool completely.

Carefully melt the white chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. (Don't allow the water to touch the bottom of the bowl, not to get into the chocolate or it will seize.) Drizzle this over the cooked cookie logs. Allow to set completely before proceeding.

Once completely cooled and the white chocolate has set, cut the logs diagonally into 1 inch wide strips. Store in an airtight container.