The Gourmet Traveller Challenge. March: 1.Milk Chocolate Biscuits 2.Brussel sprout leaves, mozzarella and white anchovy salad

These biscuits have a real old-fashioned style to them. Made from a mix of rolled oats, golden syrup and coconut, these are straight out of an early Women’s Weekly. I’m not saying that in a critical way, some of the best biscuits are from plain ole simple recipes.

As usual I wasn’t completely happy with the outcome. Maybe I made the biscuits too big as I didn’t get 40 out of the recipe, as noted, and I had twice as much melted chocolate leftover. I’m guessing that’s why they tasted a bit heavy to me. My work colleagues loved them thought and quite a few people came to tell me they had two. I’d like to give them another go just to see if I can improve the outcome by making them a bit smaller.

Milk Chocolate Biscuits

65g rolled oats

160g softened butter

160g raw caster sugar

55g golden syrup

150g plain flour

75g dessicated coconut

300-400g milk chocolate

Whiz oats in the food processor until fine. Cream butter and sugar, then add golden syrup and stir to combine. Add flour, coconut, oats and mix well. Take heaped teaspoons of the mix and roll into a ball, place on lined baking tray and press down slightly. Bake at 160°C until golden about 15-20 minutes, cool on a wire rack.

Melt chocolate in the microwave (be careful if you do it this way that you don’t over melt the chocolate and ruin it) or over a pan of simmering water, which I prefer. Once melted let it cool so you can spread it over one side of the biscuit an stick them together. Biscuits will only keep for 1-2 days.

The second dish I made from this months issue, was the feature from Matt Wilkinson’s new book, Favourite Vegetables. I thought it was an unusual salad so I decided to give it a go. I’ve had brussel sprouts in a similar way before with walnuts and pasta. Do you think I can find that recipe? I’ve kept all my old Vogue and Gourmet Traveller mags in an effort to find it and a few others that have lingered in my memory over the last few years.

The dressing for this salad is inspired. Honey, red wine vinegar, currants, olive oil, and roasted walnuts. I will be using it for other salads, definitely. My white anchovies were heavily marinated and I tried to kind of squeeze off the oil and vinegar but it infiltrated the dish too much. The strength of that combined with the vinegar in the dressing over powered the dish for me. Saying that, it could all be just me and if you give it a try, keeping in mind my mistakes, I’m sure it will turn out fabulous. It would certainly make an interesting dinner party entree. I loved using brussel sprouts this way. They tasted fantastic and the petite green cups across the salad looked beautiful.

I nearly missed the deadline again! Lets see what next month brings…..The Italian Issue!