Bag of Bar-One biscuits

30 July 2012

This bag of Bar-One biscuits is perfect as a house warming gift.

Makes: about 50
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 20-25 minutes
Oven temperature: 180˚C

• 270ml (250g) soft butter
• 370ml (320g) brown sugar
• 5ml vanilla essence
• 1 large egg
• 500ml (270g) cake flour
• 100ml (35g) cocoa powder
• 5ml bicarbonate of soda
• 100g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 100g Bar-One chocolate bar, coarsely chopped

1 Beat the butter, sugar, vanilla essence and egg until creamy.
2 Sift the dry ingredients along with 3ml salt. Gently mix with the butter mixture and chocolate. Now use your hands to mix the dough until it comes together.
3 Roll the dough into balls and arrange them on a lined baking sheet, leaving enough space between them so they don’t join together when they rise during baking. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
4 Leave the biscuits to stand on the baking sheet for a few minutes to cool down, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Packaging
Pack these delicious morsels in a little paper ‘house’ – the perfect gift for a house warming.

You will need
• white paper bag
• picture of a woman
• scrapbooking paper of your choice
• white, medium-weight cardboard
• double-sided tape
• spray glue
• masking tape
• craft knife, cutting mat, metal ruler
• scissors
• paper straw
• illustration of a house (see below)
• roof template (see below)

House and roof template

To make
1 Photocopy the house template to the desired size onto a sheet of white, medium- weight cardboard. Cut out and use spray glue to attach it to the front of the bag.
2 Photocopy the roof template on page 120 to the desired size onto a sheet of plain, white paper. Loosely attach it to the scrapbooking paper with a short strip of masking tape. Cut out the roof from the scrapbooking paper, then discard the photocopy.
3 Place the biscuits in the bag and fold it closed. Fold the roof in half, put strips of double-sided tape on the inside and attach it along the top edge of the bag.
4 Cut out a double flag shape from the scrapbooking paper. Apply spray glue to the back and fold it around the straw, then press the ends of the flag together neatly. Add the flag to the packet for extra decoration.
5 For the gift card Use spray glue to attach the picture of a woman to the cardboard, then cut out neatly with a craft knife. We used an old sewing pattern and cut it out with a base, so the woman can stand.
6 Glue a strip with the person’s name to the back of the paper doll to complete the packaging.