Mocha glim glams
This is my homage to a supermarket cookie aisle favourite,
the Tim Tam™. I’ve given it a glow-up by making a cocoa-ier
cookie and adding the sweet stifling power of coffee in the
frosting and dark chocolate in the dip. Then, like a glittering
Glomesh halter top, a shimmering slip of edible gold leaf. Resist
a hubristic urge to make these any larger – the petite dimensions
I recommend are the perfect size. Go big and you are liable
to put your eaters into a cocoa coma (a co-coma, if you will).
Pump a little Donna Summer through the speakers. This is
solid chocolate gold.

Start the cookies: sift the dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl,
pushing through any lumps of bicarbonate of soda. Rub the butter in
with your fingertips until the mix resembles almond meal (no butter
lumps). Add the milk, toss to distribute, then firmly squeeze the mix
together to form a smooth dough. Wrap loosely in plastic wrap, then
press and squeeze the dough into a flat 2 cm (¾ in) thick square. Chill
for 5 minutes before rolling.

I like to roll chocolate doughs soon after mixing, as the dough is more
supple and cracks less.

Put a large (approximately 30 cm × 30 cm/12 in × 12 in) piece
of baking paper on your work surface. Dust the paper lightly with
flour. Place the dough on top and dust again. Give the dough one
or two short, pressured rolls with the pin before turning the paper
and dough 90 degrees, making the rolls longer as the dough circle
widens to approximately 20 cm (8 in) square. Dust the dough again,
then place a second sheet of baking paper on top.

Getting the awkward first rolls out of the way before the top paper goes on
will prevent dough creases. If the paper slides on the work surface, use one
hand to hold the paper and the other to roll.

Continue rolling – turn the paper/dough sandwich 90 degrees every few
rolls, until the dough is 30 cm (12 in) square and 5–6 mm (¼ in) thick.

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Makes 9 filled cookies.

Takes Around 3 hours, but you can

Keeps Up to 1 month chilled.

make the cookies ahead and assemble

and dip on the day.

Cocoa cookies
160 g (5½ oz) plain
(all-purpose) flour
100 g (3½ oz) caster (superfine)
sugar
40 g (1½ oz) Dutch
(unsweetened) cocoa powder
2 g (¹⁄₁₆oz/¼ teaspoon) bicar- bonate
of soda (baking soda)
2 g (¹⁄₁₆oz/¼ teaspoon) fine
sea salt
110 g (4 oz) unsalted butter,
cool and pliable
20 g/ml (¾ oz) full-cream
(whole) milk, cold
Mocha frosting filling
30 g (1 oz) good dark chocolate
(50–60% cocoa)
40 g (1½ oz) full-fat cream
cheese, softened
40 g (1½ oz) unsalted butter,
soft and squidgy
3 g (¹⁄₁₀ oz/2 heaped teaspoons)
instant coffee powder, dissolved
in 6 g/ml (⅛ oz) boiling water
150 g (5½ oz) icing
(confectioners’) sugar, sifted
3 g (¹⁄₁₀ oz/¼ teaspoon) vanilla
paste
tiny pinch of sea salt flakes
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