ORANGE, FRUIT AND NUT CHOCCY BISCUITS

Inspired by Clementine's

                                  

In search of inspiration for an afternoon treat to cheer up hungry tired people returning in the January gloom  I was rummaging through the cupboard

 – oh the glamour and excitement of my life!- 

There I saw the half used pot of Italian mixed orange peel bought for the Christmas cake.

I am embarrassed to admit that usually these sort of pots generally get pushed to that back of the cupboard and are only rediscovered several months later when, 

1, they have lost all appeal, 

and 2, normally after something else has been knocked over and I have to do a clear out!

However, at the moment we are all totally addicted to Clementine’s...hence the photo. 

I am constantly buying those little crates of fruit and am totally amazed how quickly they are being eaten. 

With this thought in mind I decide the orange peel should not be left to fester behind bags of flour, but become the magic ingredient in my chocolate biscuits.

I know I said I am all about encouraging healthy eating, and maintaining a balanced diet and this really doesn’t sound very healthy, but,  I would much rather teen vegetarian gets her chocolate fix eating my orange, fruit and nut choccy bars than several bars of shop bought stuff.

To quote one of the expert chocoholic teen tasters..

 “Oh this has a lovely dense fudge-i-ness  to it”

Which I took as a huge compliment as actually it has enough healthy bits of fruits and nuts thrown in not to make it totally bad.

Here is the recipe:

orange, fruit and nut ChocCy biscuits 

Makes about 16 biscuits

Preparation time 5-10 minutes

Chilling time 2 hours

INGREDIENTS

100g/4oz Butter or margarine

3 tbsp golden syrup

8 oz digestive biscuits roughly bashed up

2 tbsp cocoa

2 tbsp each of raisons and chopped nuts- again I roughly bash these up as it is great to have different sized pieces

1 tbsp candid orange peel

5 dried apricots chopped -I usually cut them up with scissors as it’s quicker

2 oz chocolate broken into bits (use up whatever you have around.. half eaten chocolate reindeers worked very well)

 WHAT TO DO

   1. Melt the butter/marg, golden syrup and cocoa in a large saucepan until bubbling

   

    2.Whilst this is melting crush the biscuits and nuts.

   3.Turn off heat and stir in the biscuits, dried fruit and nuts until coated with lovely 

     gooey chocolate mix

   

    4. Line a 20cm by 20-25cm baking tin with baking parchment. 

    

   5. Then add the chocolate to the mixture and tip into a lined baking tin

       Press down until flat then put in the fridge for a couple of hours until set.

Before you all worry that it only makes 3 pieces..don't panic...

It makes more 

Honest...

It's just my camera and I weren't quick enough!

I had wanted to put a photo of a mound of the shiny chocolate pieces beautifully displayed on a plate.... just like they do in magazines

However... 

It proved so popular with the everyone that within minutes of it being taken out of the fridge only three pieces and a few crumbs remained!

Sorry.

Instead here are the remaining three pieces snapped before eager hands scoffed them too! 

So a word of advice... after this experience I would suggest doubling the recipe if you know you will have lots of hungry people and their friends. 


Otherwise just put a box of these on the table as well and I'm sure everyone will be happy.