Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies with a Victorian Flavour

These biscuits won't win any prizes for their beauty, that is for sure.

However, one bite reveals their inner beauty - a wonderful combination of dark chocolate, lemon zest and spice, all wrapped up in a crumbly and delicious, chocolate chip studded cookie.

I was out walking the dog (of course!) when I had the idea for using that fabulous flavour combination which I wrote about here to spice up my next batch of cookies, for the people who are working down at Cowslip Cottage.

This quantity makes an enormous batch, so you may want to halve the quantities, although they should store pretty well, given the chance.

Rich, Spicy, Chocolate Chip Cookies        Oven Temp 350 degrees

400g butter
50g good quality dark chocolate, melted
250g icing sugar
450g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
50g good quality cocoa powder
600g chocolate chips
freshly grated zest of a lemon
1 rounded tsp cinnamon

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the melted chocolate, sift in flour, salt, cocoa powder and cinnamon and then stir in the lemon zest and chocolate chips.  Treat the dough just as you would do for shortbread, work until it all comes together in a nice lump.

Take a dessertspoonful of dough, roll into a ball, place on a baking sheet, flatten, mark with a fork and then pop them into the oven for approximately 15 minutes.

Cool on a rack.

I hope you enjoy the flavour combination as much as my family do.   The cinnamon is not overpowering and the lemon zest simply becomes 'citrus' which works so wonderfully well with the rich, dark chocolate.

They are good.

Tweaked Chocolate Tart

The tart filling is rich and spicy thanks to a beautiful combination of really good chocolate laced with both cinnamon and lemon zest.

I found the recipe in the Georgiana Hill book 'A Year of Victorian Puddings' which was originally published in 1862, with the title 'Everybody's Pudding Book'.   It contains recipes for every month of the year.   There are minimal directions and no illustrations but I rather like that.

The recipe called for puff paste but I really don't like it, and neither does Max, so I decided to make a crunchy biscuit base instead - just butter and crushed digestive biscuits.

'Well beat the yolks of six eggs, add to them two dessert-spoonsful of flour, half a pint of new milk, two ounces of sugar, the fresh-grated rind of a lemon, a teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon, and a quarter of a pound of the best French chocolate scraped smooth.   Put all this into a saucepan, stir it over the fire until it gets pretty thick, then let it stand until cold.   Line a tart mould with a thin puff-paste, lay in the pudding, beat up the whites of the eggs to a very high froth, put them on the top, and bake for twenty minutes.  When done, sift sugar over it and glaze it with a salamander.'

Another couple of problems there: I don't like meringue and I certainly don't like plain whisked egg whites on the top of a pudding/tart, I could just have added sugar and made a proper meringue, but I decided to leave that topping off.

A couple of weeks ago it was my birthday and one of the gifts which Max gave me was some excellent chocolates and a large tin of Classic Drinking Chocolate.   The drinking chocolate is so delicious you could eat it straight from the tin, so I decided to sprinkle it on the top of the tart.   It worked a treat and also looked great.

So there you have it a slightly spicy and rich chocolate tart.   My chocoholic, Max, quickly dived in and declared it a complete success.  10/10 for this one.  I would definitely make my version again.

Old English Cider Cake

I couldn't resist trying this old recipe.   Two reasons really,  I like the idea that it is an English recipe, and I like cider.   Mind you, the recipe only called for a teacupful of cider, which left two thirds of a bottle going spare...

...I managed to resist, otherwise I would have ended up feeling like this.


Cider Cake

Beat 4 oz butter and 4 oz sugar to a cream.   Add two well beaten eggs and 4oz  flour sifted with 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and half a grated nutmeg.    Pour one teacupful of cider, beaten to a froth, and mix thoroughly.   Stir in another 4 oz of flour and mix well.   Bake for 45 minutes or until it is cooked.

Once again, minimal instructions about baking - I baked it at 180 degrees and it took about 55 minutes before I was completely happy with it.  You know your own oven.

Don't worry, it made a standard-sized cake, the serving platter is enormous.  I bought it in Ireland several years ago; it reminds me of the many happy holidays we spent in and around Crookhaven, West Cork.   Surely one of the most beautiful places in the world.

I couldn't wait to sample it.   I was intrigued by the use of nutmeg, but it really worked.   For the sake of experimentation, I'll use cinnamon next time, see which we prefer.   The cake was voted a success and didn't hang around long.   I will also experiment with the cider, find the perfect one for us.

It was exceptionally nice when served with a dollop of Greek yogurt.


I have had to increase the amount of exercise I do each day - all these baking experiments are having a ruinous effect.   Still, what a way to go!


Added 18 March 2016:   This cake is rich and moist,  keeps well and the flavours develop.