Great British Bake Off Special: White Chocolate, Lemon and Earl Grey Tea Biscuits

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a cup of tea and a good biscuit will make everything right in the world. And these White Chocolate, Lemon and Earl Grey Tea Biscuits are exceptionally good biscuits!

Light, crumbly and delicious, a batch of these clever cookies are easy to make and even easier to eat. The earl grey tea leaves provide a distinct taste to biscuits, perfectly complimenting the lemon zest while the drizzle of molten white chocolate not only looks good but provides a sweet almost vanilla hit as you bite in.

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 12 - 15 mintutes
• Total Time: 22 - 25 minutes

Serves: 50

Category: Baking,Biscuits & Cookies

Ingredients

• 225g plain flour
• 50g cornflour
• 115g Ground Rice Flour
• 115g Icing Sugar
• 2 Earl Grey Teabags
• 1 Lemon – zest only
• Pinch of salt
• 225g Margarine or Softened Butter
• 50g White Chocolate, melted

Method

1. Sift the three flours and icing sugar together into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment. 
2. Cut open the tea bags and tip the contents into the flour mix.
3. Finely zest the lemon and add this alongside a pinch of salt. 
4. Throw in the margarine or softened butter and mix everything together. The mix will start off resembling crumbs until it starts to clump together. 
5. Divide the dough into two and roll each piece out between two sheets of greaseproof paper to a depth of ½ cm. 
6. Put each flat piece of dough into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
7. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325F/160C/Gas Mark 3. Line three baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
8. Use a round 2”/5cm pastry cutter to stamp out biscuit shape and carefully lift each cut biscuit onto the lined baking sheets, leaving a small gap between each one. 
9. Bring all off-cuts back together and re-roll between the greaseproof paper until you have used up all of the mixture. 
10. If you find that the dough becomes too soft, place it back into the fridge to firm up for 10-15 mins. 
11. Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes. The biscuits should be pale gold when they are ready.
12. Allow the biscuits to cool fully on a wire rack.
13. To decorate with white chocolate, break the chocolate into small pieces and place it in a piping bag or a single-use freeze bag. 
14. Roll over the open end and clip closed before immersing the chocolate in a tall glass of tap-hot water. Allow to melt thoroughly.
15. Place the biscuits across a sheet of greaseproof paper before snipping a small opening from the piping bag and drizzling the melted chocolate back and forth across the biscuits. 
16. Allow to fully set before lifting into an airtight tin for storage.

Tom Frizell-Shackley is a food writer, recipe developer and freelance PR consultant, based in the North of England. He lives with his partner, son and three spaniels. Since 2019, he has published recipes and kitchen tips for his Kitchen Notes food blog.