It’s mad when you think about it, someone tucking into a bourbon biscuit and a cup of tea during World War 1. But, it’s entirely possible as the humble bourbon biscuit has been around since 1910, making it a whopping 102 years old. The original bourbon was apparently called Creola, but was changed to the name Bourbon, in order to make it sound more appealing. Apart from the name change, it doesn’t appear that a lot has changed with the bourbon biscuit.
It’s still two oblong chocolate biscuits sandwiched together with chocolate fondant. I always wondered about the name Bourbon. I was sure there had to be bourbon whiskey in their somewhere. Alas, after examining several different packets, I discovered that bourbon was not listed anywhere on the ingredients list. It’s a shame as chocolate and bourbon work great together. So I decided to create my own chocolate bourbon, with a touch of bourbon whiskey to shake it up a bit. I had no oblong cutter, so I used the lid from a small box I had lying around. The lid worked surprisingly well. It’s amazing what you can make out of normal everyday things. The resulting bourbons were yummy, crisp, light buttery and full of chocolate and bourbon flavour. Dare I say it, a bit of an improvement on the original 1910 recipe. These are ones I’ll definitely be making again.
Here’s how:
Biscuits
- 125g of butter
- 50g of castor sugar
- 150g of plain flour
- 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
Filling
- 75 g butter, at room temperature
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp bourbon whiskey
- 175 g icing sugar
- 1 tbsp good quality cocoa
Mix the butter and sugar together in a food processor. Add the flour and cocoa powder in two batches and continue to mix in the food processor until the mix comes together to form a dough. Wrap the dough in Clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Once the biscuit dough has rested, place on a lightly floured board and roll out to about quarter an inch thickness. Using an oblong cutter (or in my case an small oblong shaped lid) cut out rectangular biscuits. To create the effect of a bourbon biscuit, I used a cocktail stick to prick 5 holes on the two long sides of the biscuit. I then used letter shaped cookie cutters to spell out bourbon. As my letter shaped cookie cutters were quite big, I used one letter per biscuit.
Place in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Keep a close eye on them, so they don’t burn. I took my biscuits out after about 8 minutes and reprinted the letters in to make them more prominent. As they cook, the letters kind of melt in, so it’s a good idea to re stamp them half way to make them more definite. Once cooked, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
To make the filling, beat the butter, milk and the bourbon until very soft. Then gradually sift in the icing sugar and the cocoa powder, beating all the time, until every bit is added. Continue to beat until very soft, and then whisk the mixture until it is light and fluffy. Place the filing in a piping bag.
To assemble, place the biscuit (decorated side down) on a board. Pipe the filling, just around the edge of the biscuit. I didn’t pipe filling on the entire biscuit, as I think it makes them a bit too heavy. Place another biscuit on top and squeeze gently, so that the filling adheres to both sides. Eh voila…bourbon flavoured bourbons. There biscuits are great served with a good big mug of tea. Yum.
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