Chocolate Teacakes

Great British Baking Show: “The Beginnings” (Netflix), Season 5 (PBS)                                                   –A.K.A. The Great British Bake Off Series 3

Episode 8:                                                                                                                                                         Technical Challenge– Chocolate Teacakes

 

So what the Brits call chocolate teacakes, the Americans call Mallomars! In Britain, the chocolate teacake is unlike other “teacakes” which are usually served with a British ‘cuppa’ (tea). Teacakes are usually a sort of cake with dried fruits in it. These chocolate teacakes are a digestive biscuit (or in the U.S., a cookie) with marshmallow on top and then the whole thing is covered in chocolate. There was even a whole case brought to the European Court of Justice in 2009 and whether teacakes in general were a cake or a biscuit. In Britain, biscuits are taxed, but cakes are not. The British take their teacakes very seriously!

The challenge this week on the show was to make 6 of these chocolate teacakes. The bakers received their ingredients, limited instructions, and a half circle silicone mold to make their cakes in. I made one variation to my cakes, which was to make butter cookies instead of digestive cookies. Digestive cookies are a sort of semi-sweet whole wheat cookie. I didn’t feel like buying whole wheat flour as I don’t use it much, so I just decided to make a whole different cookie. Although next time I might try this recipe with graham crackers! I bough the silicone mold on Amazon and followed Paul’s recipe on BBC.

First I made my butter cookies. It was a simple recipe I found online and they were easily moldable, not the kind of dough that you let harden in the fridge and then cut from the log of dough and cook. So I used a measuring cup that was close to the size of the molds to cut the dough around to get the right size. After they came out of the oven and they cooled, they still ended up being a little too big so I cut some cookie off the edge so they would fit into my molds.

While those cookies were cooling, I melted the chocolate in my makeshift double boiler. I take my dutch oven and lay in a glass bowl that fits perfectly and then put a thin layer of water underneath (so it doesn’t touch the glass bowl). It works very well! So I melted my chocolate that way and then I had to let it cool down a bit. A very thin melted chocolate would just drip off the sides of my mold. I needed a slightly cooler, thicker chocolate to work with. Once it was cool enough, I used a spoon to spread the chocolate in an even layer into my half circle mold. Then I left it out to let it set.

A very good piece of advice they say on the show is do not put your chocolate to set in the fridge!! It may speed up the process, but when you take your teacakes out of the mold, the chocolate will have a dull look instead of the nice shiny way mine look.

While my chocolate was setting, I whipped up my marshmallow. It was really simple! I took out my freshly cleaned makeshift double boiler and put all my ingredients for my marshmallow in it. I immediately started whipping it with my hand mixer (you can use a whisk too) and continued until the marshmallow got thick was doubled in size. You can honestly do half the recipe and still have plenty of marshmallow from Paul’s recipe. Once that was finished, I let it cool off a bit and then put it into my piping bag and piped the marshmallow into my 6 chocolate covered silicone half-spheres. 

The butter cookies have since cooled so I spread some melted chocolate on them and plopped them chocolate side down onto the top of each marshmallow filled dome. Then more melted chocolate was spread on top of the cookies and I had to let it all set before I popped them out of the silicone mold. 

They came out nice and shiny and perfect looking, although I could have used a bit less chocolate in some of the molds. The cookie could have been thinner too, but the marshmallow was perfect!

Yield 6-12 Teacakes.

Ingredients:

• 1-2 9oz bags of chocolate chips (or baking chocolate)

Cookies

Adapted from Taste of Home.

• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 6 tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 egg (I know this is weird, its a halved recipe, I cracked mine in a separate bowl and then scooped halve the white and yolk into my bowl with the other ingredients)
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/4 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• pinch of salt

Marshmallow

Adapted from Paul Hollywood’s recipe on BBC.

• 3 eggs, whites only
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 6 tsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Start by melting one bag of chocolate either in microwave or using a double boiler. If using microwave, heat and then mix in 30 second intervals so chocolate doesn’t burn. Once chocolate is melted, set aside and mix every once in a while. It needs to cool down a little so it is a thicker consistency and doesn’t slide down the silicone molds.
2. Next start on the cookies*. For the butter cookies, beat butter and sugar until creamy, then add in vanilla and egg and mix. Lastly, add in flour, baking powder and salt gradually until all is beaten in. The dough should be slightly greasy feeling and easily moldable, not too sticky.
3. Then roll out dough to about to 1/8″ thickness**. After the dough is rolled out, you can use a small glass or stencil to cut out a circle roughly the size of the circle for your silicone mold***. Then bake the cookies about 8 minutes. You want them golden, but not brown. Set aside to cool.
4. If you haven’t already, it’s probably time to go back to the melted chocolate and using a knife or spoon to smooth it into the mold. You want a relatively thin layer, too much chocolate will be harder to bite into and will overwhelm the cookie and marshmallow. Set aside the mold to let the chocolate set. Do not put in refrigerator!!****
5. If your cookies are cooled at this point, you can use some melted chocolate to thinly coat one side of each cookie. Let those set too.
6. Then start working on the marshmallow. Break out the double boiler again. This time combine all marshmallow ingredients in double boiler and use hand beater to whisk about 6-10 minutes until mixture gets thick and glossy and doubles in volume.
7. Put marshmallow in piping bag and pipe into the chocolate domes. Then put cookie on top chocolate side down. Lastly, you may need to melt some more chocolate, but either pipe or use a knife to smear chocolate on top of cookie and sides so marshmallow won’t leak out. Let the whole thing set and then pop out of silicone molds and eat! No need to refrigerate.

Notes:

*I used a butter cookie recipe for this, you can try a digestive biscuit or perhaps use a graham cracker recipe if you’d like.

**I did 1/4″ for mine and I thought the cookie was too thick.

***I had extra cookie dough and marshmallow leftover, so even though I only made 6 teacakes. I definitely had enough to make more and you will too. If you have more than one mold you can do multiple batches in one shot, or do it one batch at a time.

****As Paul says in his recipe, putting the chocolate to set in the refrigerator will make the chocolate loose its shine. Instead of shiny chocolate teacakes, you’ll have dull looking ones.

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