Chocolate Biscuit/Cookie Truffles

These chocolate biscuit /cookie truffles are a lovely visual feast. With only three ingredients and a swing of a rolling pin, you have a nice little treat for yourself, or to box up as a gift for some lucky other.

The recipe calls for chocolate cream biscuits/cookies, the ones that look like little sandwiches. The aim is to counter the cheese with a big punchy chocolate three-mix. However, there’s no reason you couldn’t use other types of cream biscuits. I imagine this would taste pretty good with orange, or lemon creams.

History

Speaking of “sandwich” cream biscuits, they have an interesting history, dating back to the early 1900s. According to food historian, Lizzie Collingham, in this BBC article, it was all about industrialization:

“Biscuits were the first industrial food, the first food stuff to be produced by a machine; form mixing, kneading, rolling out, cutting out, baking, it could all be done with minimal intervention from people. To put custard powder [made by a chemist] in a biscuit… it brought together two things which represented industrial progress.” – Lizzie Collingham, Food Historian. Source

Biscuits, sometimes dipped in wine, were commonly used as digestives hundreds of years earlier.

Lingo

By the way, the word “biscuit” comes from the French term besquit (twice cooked), which has its roots in the Latin panis bis cotus (bread twice-baked). The twice-cooked part is because biscuits needed to be hard and dry to last. Preserved meat and ship’s biscuits were literally staple rations for sailors way back. The word “cookie” on the other hand, comes from the Dutch koekje “little cake”, and was introduced to America by immigrants in the late 18th century.

UK, Australia, New Zealand, Others	UK, Canada
biscuit (sweet or savoury, various shapes & textures, good for dunking in a cup of tea)	cookie (sweet, usually larger, denser, crumblier than the UK biscuit)
savoury biscuit (can also call it a cracker)	cracker (savoury)
scone (roundish baked good, often served with jam & cream but can also be savoury)	biscuit (savoury quick bread, often cut into triangles, cooked on griddle, served with meat & gravy)

“In Britain, a cup of tea is the answer to every problem. Fallen off your bicycle? Nice cup of tea. Your house has been destroyed by a meteorite? Nice cup of tea and a biscuit. Your entire family has been eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex that has travelled through a space/time portal? Nice cup of tea and a piece of cake.”

-David Walliams, actor and comedian, from his children’s book mr stink (2009)

And while you’re making tasty little things, here’s a passionfruit slice, and here’s a coconut raspberry jam slice!