Simple shortbread biscuits dipped in melted milk chocolate, then scattered with salted peanut brittle; this could be the perfect cookie.
Ingredients
For the Peanut Brittle
- 1½ oz (940 g) caster or granulated sugar
- 1½ oz (40 g) salted peanuts
For the Cookies
- 5 oz (150 g) plain flour
- 2 oz (50 g) caster or granulated sugar
- 3½ oz (100 g) butter, softened
To Finish
- 3½ oz (100 g) milk chocolate, in drops or broken into pieces
How to Make It
- To make the peanut brittle, first line a baking tray with baking parchment and set aside. Place the sugar in a frying pan and scatter the peanuts over the sugar. Place on a medium heat, not stirring but swirling the pan every so often to caramelise the sugar evenly. Cook until the sugar has completely melted and is a deep golden colour. Swirl the pan again so that the peanuts are coated in the caramel. Transfer the coated nuts to the prepared baking tray. Once cool and completely set (it will be hard), break up the brittle using your hands, then place in a food processor and whiz until just slightly coarse or chop coarsely by hand.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F), Gas mark 4. Put the flour and sugar into a mixing bowl. Rub in the soft butter and bring the whole mixture together to form a stiff dough. Alternatively, you can whiz everything up briefly in a food processor. Roll the dough into a log approximately 30 cm (12 in) long and 4 cm (1½in) in diameter (the log of cookie dough can be covered and kept in the fridge like this for up to a week). Now cut into 7 mm (¼in) slices.
- Place on baking trays (no need to butter or line) and cook in the oven for 8–10 minutes until light golden brown. Allow to cool for 1 minute before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Alternatively, you could roll out the dough to about 7 mm (¼in) thick and cut it into shapes to bake.
- Once the cookies have cooled, place the chocolate in a bowl sitting over a saucepan with a few centimetres of water. Bring the water up to the boil, then take off the heat and allow the chocolate to melt slowly. Once melted, dip the top of each cookie into the chocolate, then scatter the peanut brittle over the chocolate and place somewhere cool to set.