Choco-ades: The Retro NZ Biscuit

This New Zealand biscuit has a bit of a funny history, one that really highlights the power of the Kiwi biscuit culture.

The Choco-ade first showed up in New Zealand supermarkets in the 1980's and was clearly well loved by the population. But as trends change and companies grow, Choco-ades inevitably fell off the shelf, and presumably out of peoples memories. However, that was not the case when 2 decades later a Kiwi mum, Amber Johnson created a Facebook campaign to bring back the biscuit for her husband. Nearly 15,000 people supported this movement (which is a lot for New Zealand.... it's pretty much everyone) and it was enough for the biscuit company Griffin's to start producing them again. Not only that, but they actually put Amber in the TV advertisement announcing their return. Now if that isn't a feel good story about how the country branded together for a biscuit, then I don't know what is.

Griffins also packaged them in pretty much the same packaging as the old version. Just to really bring on the nostalgia. Below is there current packaging. Very retro. If you've never had a Choco-ade before, they are a biscuit cup filled with an orange filling and chocolate on top!

How to make a biscuit cup

Now, this stumped me at first! I was trying to mould them by hand and then just stick them in the over. But of course, they would just melt to a flat shortbread. It wasn't until it was suggested to me over an Instagram baking Live to use a muffin tray as a mould, that I really got things moving with this recipe! While it's not 100% the exact shape, it's probably as close as I'm going to get. You might be wondering how I would possibly be able to get them out of the muffin tray once the are cooked without breaking them. Well, in the same Live session, it was suggested to cut out little strips of baking paper and sit them underneath, so once they are cooked they can easily be lifted out. Ingenious!

Orange Flavoured Filling

Written on the front of the Choco-ade packet is, "biscuits with an orange flavoured filling & a choc top". A choc top is pretty self explanatory, but what is an orange flavoured filling? From what I could remember, it was a sweet orange marmalade or jelly. So that's what I decided to put in the middle. Orange marmalade by itself was too tart for my liking, so when Kasia suggested to sweeten it with a bit of honey, I did just that! For me, it worked a charm so that's what I have included in the recipe below. But because peoples orange taste can vary wildly, please know you have creative freedom for this part, especially because different marmalades have vary sweetness. Just make sure you are trying it before you put it in!

I N G R E D I E N T S

• 80 grams of butter

• 1/4 cup of caster sugar

• 1 egg

• 130 grams of gluten free flour

• 1/2 tsp of baking powder

• 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum (omit if flour mixture contains this already)

• 1/8 tsp of salt

• 1/2 cup of Orange Marmalade

• 1 Tbsp of Honey/Agave Nectar

• 100 grams of Dark Chocolate

• 100 grams of Milk Chocolate

M E T H O D

1. Preheat the oven to 180° celsius, bake. Grease a muffin tray and line with strips of baking paper. These will be used as handles to pull out the baked biscuit cups.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3. Add egg and beat again.

4. Sift in the gluten free flour, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt.

5. Mix in the dry mixture until you form a dough.

6. Sprinkle gluten free flour on a flat surface and a rolling pin and then roll out the dough to just under a centimetre thick.

7. Cut out the biscuits with a crimped circle cookie cutter which has a larger diameter than the muffin tray holes.

8. Push the biscuits evenly into the muffin trays, making sure the edges are slightly coming up the sides. These will be your biscuit cups.

9. Bake for 12-15 minutes of until lightly golden.

10. Remove from the oven and let them cool.

11. While the biscuits are cooling, mix together the orange marmalade and heat a small pot of boiling water to melt the chocolate (please see above for notes on the filling).

12. Place a glass bowl over the boiling water (making sure it isn't touching the water!) and break the chocolate into the bowl.

13. Continue stirring until the chocolate is half melted, then remove from heat and keep stirring until smooth.

14. Fill each of the cooled biscuit cups with a teaspoon of orange filling, and then a drizzle of chocolate on top.

15. Pop in the fridge for a couple hours, then they are ready to eat!