Foodie Friday - Choc Caramel Biscuits

It was a very Foodie Friday yesterday. Check out these droolworthy specimens!
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These are a variation on last weeks Stuffed Dark Chocolate Cookies, which were based on this recipe from the Love Veggies and Yoga blog.

Just in case you missed it, here are the ones I made last week.

Similar but different, yes?

What I had in the fridge was a can of condensed milk that had been opened and was just calling out to be turned into caramel.  Then it wanted so badly to live inside a chewy chocolate biscuit (who wouldn't?).

There is one little thing I should mention. I did crunch the numbers for these, but they are scary in extremis.  My biscuits were average to large and about 500 calories each. I never said Foodie Friday was a low-calorie experience...  It's sooo much more than that.

The reason mine were such calorie bombs is that I sandwiched the caramel between two biscuits and called it one fat bickie. It's a two for one deal.  As with all energy dense foods, you can keep your dignity by just eating half. I'll put a link to the stats at the end of the recipe.

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Once again, the source recipe is here.

Choc Caramel Biscuits (Gluten Free Version).

Makes 6 large biscuits.

Ingredients: 

• One can of condensed Milk (390g)
• 110g rice flour
• 30g corn flour
• 120g sugar
• 60g butter
• 1 large egg
• 15g cocoa powder

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt

• 75g finely chopped chocolate (milk or dark, I used half of each)
• 5 dried apricots, chopped.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 320F.

First prepare the caramel. If you are forward thinking enough, the correct technique is to simmer the can of condensed milk in water for about two hours.  If you are going to do this, be very careful that the water is never allowed to evaporate to below the level of the top of the can. Exploding condensed milk cans are not something you need in your life.

As my can was already open, I made my caramel the cheats way - by simmering it in a saucepan, stirring constantly until it was thick and caramel-like.  You usually get some dark flecks that are caused by the milk scalding on the bottom of the pot. These don't affect the taste of the caramel and can even give it a nice slightly 'toffee' taste.

Once you have your caramel put it in the fridge to cool.

Soften the butter and mix with the sugar.

Put all dry ingredients as well as the egg and vanilla into a bowl or processor and mix. Add the butter and sugar. It will be a thick mix. My food processor whined like an unfit person in minute 19 of a 20 minute HIIT session.

Fold the chopped chocolate and apricots into the biscuit mix and let it chill in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.

Once everything is cool divide the mix into twelve flat, biscuit shaped portions. One of these makes the bottom and one makes the top of the biscuit. Put a tsp of caramel in between the two and seal around the edges. There was some caramel left over in my case (which is accounted for in the nutritional analysis for those that are concerned about such things).

Place the biscuits on a lined baking tray and bake for 15 minutes. They will look underdone, but aren't.

Let them cool in the fridge.

Munch.  

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Nutritional stats are here.

Really.. so good. 

And finally, a larger version of the first pic, just to ensure you don't miss anything important.