Bourbons, the best of the biscuit world and I won’t hear otherwise. Chocolate biscuits sandwiched together with chocolate coffee buttercream. Utterly divine. Bourbons were the reason why I bought my biscuit cutter set and led me to develop not only a recipe to these chocolate treats but also Custard Creams, Jammie Dodgers, and Party Rings.
Makes 20-22
Hands-on Time 25 minutes plus chilling
Baking Time 15 minutes
Ingredients
205g Unsalted butter (softened)
55g Caster sugar
55g Soft light brown sugar
230g Plain flour
80g Cocoa powder
1/8 tsp plus a pinch Fine salt
2 tbsp Golden syrup
2 tbsp Full-fat milk
1 Egg, medium
1 tsp Instant coffee powder (fine)
145g Icing sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
Equipment
Mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Baking parchment
Rolling pin
Bourbon biscuit cutter, sharp knife, or pizza cutter
Aluminium baking sheet
Wire rack
Teaspoon
Add 120g of butter and the caster and light brown sugars to a mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until light and smooth.
Add the flour, 50g of cocoa, and 1/8 teaspoon of fine salt
Stir them into the buttercream until you have a crumble like mixture.
Add the golden syrup, 1 tablespoon of milk, and egg and give a final stir until you have a thick paste.
Take a large sheet of baking parchment and fold it in half. Open the paper out and put the paste onto one of the halves. Fold the paper over to cover and flatten with your hands. Use a rolling pin to roll the paste out until it’s approximately 5-7mm thick. Try and roll the paste out into a rectangle. As the paste is pliable you can shape it easily by folding it back onto itself. Use the parchment to your advantage.
Pop it into the fridge for at least an hour.
When the paste is a firm dough remove it from the fridge. Rather than use a clean sheet of parchment I rip one half off and use this for my cutout biscuits for baking. Take your cutter and stamp out your biscuits. If you are using a knife or pizza cutter then you want your biscuits to be about as wide and long as your index and middle fingers.
Place them a couple of centimetres apart on the baking parchment. If you have any dough left roll it out between the remaining piece of parchment but bear in mind you may need this piece for baking too. Try not to handle the dough too much with your hands as it will soften from your body heat and the repeated rolling. If your dough gets too pliable again then pop it back into the fridge to set.
If you find your biscuit cutter is sticking to the dough then sprinkle a mix of cocoa and cornflour over the biscuit dough before cutting further biscuits out although I found this wasn’t necessary.
Once all biscuits have been cutout pop them back into the fridge for another hour. If you are limited for space you can stack one parchment of biscuits on top of the other, it won’t squash them.
In the meantime preheat your oven to 170°C/150°C(Fan)/325°F/Gas mark 3.
After the hour is up slide a sheet of parchment onto a baking sheet and pop it into the oven on a middle shelf for 15 minutes.
When the time is up remove the biscuits and leave them to cool. Transfer them onto a wire rack and leave to cool fully.
Bake the second sheet of biscuits (if you have one) and again leave to cool when baked.
When the biscuits have cooled you can get on with the filling.
In a clean mixing bowl add the remaining 85g of butter, 30g of cocoa, pinch of salt, coffee powder, and icing sugar and cream together.
Add the vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of milk and beat until you have thick yet spreadable buttercream.
Turn half of the bourbons over and dollop 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of buttercream on top of them. Sandwich the biscuits with their corresponding tops. If you want a neat edge run your finger along the edge to remove any buttercream which has squidged out.
If you want a firm buttercream, pop the biscuits into the fridge before eating.
Enjoy!
