Biscuits + Football

Today I woke up resolute to fill the day with all sorts of activity.

Then I looked at the clock, and realised Australia's World Cup match was mere hours aways. So instead, I bided my time and fixated myself on recipes that I would cook later today.

I'm not really a follower of football, though I understand the appeal of 'the beautiful game' and the emotion attached to it. The World Cup, to lean upon many cliches, brings attention not just to a simple ball game; this spectacle draws countries together, builds hope, conjures fear, delivers disappointment, delivers joy. I am a fan, and I support Australia, with England being my 'second' team. Oh, and Switzerland, though only because I drew them in my office sweep and I stand to profit.

So you can imagine my nerves this morning when the hour upon 3 was drawing closer. To occupy my mind, I pedalled down to my local shops and bought some ingredients to make delightful chocolatey mint morsels. Cooking relaxes me, it focuses me and I couldn't think of anything more I'd rather do. Especially when the outcome of such efforts turn out like the below.

So here is the recipe I used, though to be honest it definately didn't turn out like proposed. Even though I diligently converted the annoying US measurements (a stick of butter? Whatever.), at the point where the batter was supposed to resemble 'pebbles', it more took the shape of cake batter. So I added more flour. Then more sugar. It still looked like batter, albeit a little stiffer.

I refrigerated for an hour during the first half of the game (score Aus 1: Ghana 1; Kewell red carded for a hand ball, fool), then decided to roll these into balls and make choc mint melting moments. Delicious.

So after I made what seemed like 50 biscuits, the game ended. The tenseness of the match was eased when I stepped into the kitchen.

So I decided to melt some dark chocolate (with some mint essence) and coat half of these little soldiers into submission. I drowned them into the chocolate, then femmed them up somewhat (more petticoated them) with hundreds & thousands.

The other half I used as planned; I combined a couple of cups of icing sugar, with about 50g of butter and a good dollop of milk and peppermint essence. Then I beat this concoction, until it thickened and was good to ice one biscuit.

So here is the outcome. I'm home alone this week, so have over baked once again, though such is the result when I want to relax. I may take these into work, though I fear they will not travel well. We shall see how long they last.