Chocolate Finger Tips

After Friday's chocolate covered strawberries I only had about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips left in my jar, so I decided that today was also going to be a chocolate 'dipping' day - who can resist ANYTHING dipped in chocolate :o)

I didn't bother using my stand mixer for this because it's not a huge amount of dough, so just a little elbow grease and a wooden spoon worked fine.

Chocolate Finger Tips
makes 15 fingers

1/2 cup butter, soft room temperature
3 Tbs icing sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

• preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• put the softened butter into a medium bowl and sift the icing sugar over the top.
• using a wooden spoon cream them together until very soft.
• mix in the flour and vanilla extract until combined - it will come together as large 'clumps' which you can then press together with you hands to form a ball of dough.
• pinching off pieces of dough about the size of a walnut, roll them in your hands to form small logs about 3 inches in length - I pressed them against my fingers to form little indents (as the photo shows), but keeping them as round logs will work just as well.
• place them on a cookie sheet a couple of inches apart and bake for 15-17 minutes, until edges are just browning.
• leave to cool on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• once the cookies are cooled, melt the chocolate in a microwavable bowl in 10 second increments until nearly smooth;  whisk to melt completely.
• place a piece of wax paper over a wire rack ready to hold the chocolate dipped 'fingers'.
• carefully dip each end of a cookie in the melted chocolate and place on the wax papered rack;  repeat with the remaining cookies and then place in the fridge to set completely.

 Chocolate Finger Tips ingredients

put the butter into a bowl and sift the icing sugar over it.

cream together until softened and smooth.

add the flour and vanilla extract.

blend everything together until you have large clumps;  you can then press together to form a soft dough ball.

make 'logs' using about a walnut size piece of dough (I squeezed them a little to form dents, but you can keep them plain 'logs' if you prefer).

place them on a cookie sheet and bake until the edges are just browning.

once they're cooled completely, carefully dip each end in the melted chocolate.

place them on a wax paper covered wire rack and pop them in the fridge to set completely.

 a line of chocolately, biscuity yumminess!! :o)

Easter Biscuits

Even though we now live in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, and have embraced the differences in food and culture and all the other things that make this wonderful country different from England, every now and again I like to bring a little bit of 'the old country' back into my kitchen.  These buttery, subtly flavoured biscuits (yes, biscuits, not cookies :o), bring back sooo many memories of Easter growing up as a child.  Variations of these would be in EVERY bakery and grocery store in the southwest of England, as I'm sure they still are, and they would come out as dessert most nights around the Easter holidays.

Easter Biscuits
makes 30-35 biscuits

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
4-6 Tbs milk
3/4 cup raisins

• preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• in an electric stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter for a couple of minutes until smooth.
• add the sugar and continue beating until fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Stop and scrape the sides down halfway through.
• mix in the egg yolks and vanilla until incorporated.
• in a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon.
• add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and beat on medium speed until incorporated.
• while the mixer is running on low, pour in the raisins and enough milk to form a fairly soft dough.
• on a floured surface roll out the dough to 1/4" thickness and cut out biscuits using a 3" scalloped cookie cutter;  arrange about 2" apart onto cookie sheets.
• lightly beat the egg whites until frothy and brush over the tops of the biscuits;  sprinkle a little white sugar over the tops if wanted.
• bake for 12-15 minutes - they will stay fairly pale in colour.

 Easter Biscuit ingredients.

separate your eggs.

beat the butter until smooth.

after you've beaten the sugar into the butter add the egg yolks and vanilla.

in a separate bowl whisk the flour, salt and cinnamon.

mix the dry ingredients into the butter mix and once incorporated add the raisins and milk until....

....a soft dough is formed.

on a floured surface roll out to 1/4" thickness.

cut out the biscuits using a 3" scalloped cutter, re-rolling the scraps to make about 30-35 biscuits.

place on cookie sheets, brush with slightly beaten egg whites and sprinkle with sugar.

bake for 12-15 minutes, let cool on the sheets for a couple of minutes, transfer to wire racks and...

enjoy with a nice mug of coffee.

Chicken Casserole with Biscuits

Everyone should have at least one recipe in their repertoire that requires the absolute minimum of preparation, using ingredients that will probably already be in your fridge, freezer or pantry.  Just for those days when the least amount of effort for a huge and tasty payoff is required.  This one is even cooked in the slow cooker, so even better.

This is mine.....
(By all means, if you have the time or inclination, please, please make your own biscuit dough for the topping, but I'm more than happy with using those tube biscuits - like I said, 'minimum preparation'!! :o)

Chicken Casserole with Biscuits
6 servings

6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 Tbs butter, softened
1 onion, sliced
1 can condensed chicken soup
1 can condensed mushroom soup
1-2 tbs dried garlic (or 1-2 cloves, chopped - but that was just too much effort today :o)
2 Tbs chicken seasoning
pinch salt & pepper
vegetable stock
1 tube refrigerator biscuits

• in a 4-6 quart slow cooker, combine the chicken breasts, butter, onion, soups, garlic, chicken seasoning and salt and pepper; pour in enough vegetable stock to almost cover the chicken, and mix well.
• cover and cook on LOW heat for 4 hours.
• remove the chicken breasts and chop into bite size pieces; return to the slow cooker and mix well, check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed.
• break each biscuit in half and arrange across the top of the casserole, sinking them into the sauce slightly.
• turn the heat to HIGH, and cook for a further 1.5 - 2 hours, until the biscuits are puffed up and golden.

 Chicken Casserole with Biscuits ingredients.

this is about the hardest of the prep work that you'll have, apart from opening a few cans ;o)

I just love the concept of throwing everything in the slow cooker and leaving it to do it's own thing - ingenious!

mix everything up well.

I didn't even use a knife to cut the chicken, just the spoon that I was going to mix it back into the sauce with - it's soooo tender.

I always jump at the 'pop' as the tube explodes open - I usually expect them to fly across the room!!

tear the biscuits in half and submerge them slightly in the sauce.  Don't worry if you think the sauce is a little too 'liquidy' at this stage - the biscuits will soak some of that up as they bake.

the biscuits puff together and are wonderfully moist.

if, like today, I wanted as little work as possible I make ours pretty basic, but on occasion I'll add some frozen vegetables (peas, corn, green beans - whatever's handy) just before I put the biscuit topping on and it's delicious that way too.