3pm Oat Biscuits
I come from a long line of biscuit lovers. The Lamb family... we are biscuit people. Growing up, there were always several mismatched tins stuffed with an ever-rotating selection: simple ones, chocolate-coated ones, sandwiched ones, stale ones – we loved them all. Before I worked in kitchens, I had an office job. The 3pm tea-and- biscuit combo gave us a break from our never- ending inboxes. One person would sort the brew and someone else would be on biscuit duty. For a few minutes, the playing field was level and we’d all stop to have a chat. This rich, crumbly (but crucially very simple!) ‘3pm oat biscuit’ is my homage to all those times, to the permission we give ourselves to take a moment. Maybe it sounds silly, but no matter where I am, whether I’m at home, at school, in offices or kitchens, the small yet mighty biscuit has always been a powerful tool for connection and communication. Get the kettle on!
Ingredients
- 150 gramsrolled oats
- 100 gramsplain flour
- 3 gramsbicarbonate of soda (about ½ tsp)
- 3 gramsflaky sea salt (about 1 tsp)
- 50 gramslight soft brown sugar
- 85 gramsbutter, cold and cubed
- 85 gramsbutter, melted and cooled slightly
- 1 teaspoonmalt vinegar
- 150 gramsdark chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- 1
Mix together all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then rub the cold cubed butter into the dry ingredients.
- 2
Once the melted butter has cooled down, mix in the malt vinegar. Pour the butter/vinegar mix into the dry ingredients and mix together to form a dough.
- 3
Squash the biscuit dough in between two sheets of baking paper and roll it out to about 2mm thick. You want it to be quite thin as you will be sandwiching the biscuits together later and so two biscuits actually = one biscuit in this case.
- 4
Let the biscuit dough chill for about 20 minutes in the fridge. You want it to be pliable but chilled. Line a large, flat baking tray with baking paper. Cut out the biscuits and place them on the tray. I use a 6cm fluted cutter – they should weigh around 10g each. You can squash all of the offcuts together and re-roll ad infinitum!
- 5
Bake at 195°C/175°C fan/Gas Mark 5 ½ for around 10 minutes. If the biscuits aren’t golden by then, leave them in for 1 minute longer at a time. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.
- 6
While the biscuits are cooling down, melt your dark chocolate over a bain-marie until liquified. Put a teaspoon (ish) of cooled chocolate onto a biscuit – you can spread it a little bit to the edges to encourage the chocolate to ‘squish’ out of the edges when you sandwich it with another biscuit. If the chocolate doesn’t splurge out of the edges a bit, add a little more chocolate! Repeat with the other biscuits and melted chocolate.
- 7
Now leave to set and chill. I put mine in the fridge because I am impatient. You now officially win 3pm. Your biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.