Chocolate Dinobiscuits

Good evening everyone.  Hope you're well. Not feeling too fabulous over here, but I still managed to perk myself up to do a bit of baking. 

Dinosaur biscuits.  

Now, ordinarily I wouldn't make things in shapes, but on this occasion I am, for 2 reasons. My friend has a birthday coming up and he is obsessed with Diplodocus. 'Dippy'. (Google it, you will know what it is when you see it). And secondly to take to my friend Nina's house because I am forcing a love of dinosaurs upon her, her partner and her 12 week old son, my little Olliebob.  

I found a recipe online, which I have to admit is one of the strangest recipes I've ever followed in my life.  As I was putting it all together I was very unsure of what the hell was going to happen, but, they worked a treat and I would like to share with you all. 

Original recipe is from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman

(I made a couple of alterations) 

1 cup (2 sticks/220g) butter or margarine, softened

1 1/2 cups golden caster sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups s/r flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa, sifted

1- Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. 

2- Add in the four, salt, baking powder and cocoa and mix until incorporated and smooth, with no remaining flour streaks. 

3- Wrap the dough in plastic and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

4- Roll the dough out to 1/4" for thicker cookies or 1/8" for thinner ones. Cut shapes, transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake on 350F/gas 4/180C  for about 10 minutes.

5- Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

I have to admit, the dough was very sticky and hard to work with, but adding flour to my board and rolling pin, it made my life a lot  easier. 

This mixture also made enough dough for about a million biscuits, but I have popped the remainder in the fridge for quick baking next time the mood takes me.  (Probably tomorrow). 

The original recipe called for plain flour and baking powder.  But I ran out of plain flour, so replaced for self raising. This was a bit of a risk but worked perfectly.  

I made thinner ones with a bit more of a crunch to them,  but I look forward to making thicker gooier ones in the future. 

Another fun thing about the Dinobiscuits is that it called for 'cups' instead of g/oz's. 

This was particularity exciting because I was given a gift, only this week by Nina, of measuring cups. 

They are super cute and let's be honest, much more fun than weighing things out. 

 

And finally the cutters were courtesy of the Natural History Museum.  I think they are plain amazing.  

:)