We love an easy baking recipe and these chocolate dipped shortbread biscuits are not only simple to make but super tasty. Perfect for parties or a delicious treat and weekend baking with the kids.

‘These shortbread biscuits are incredibly easy to make and you can cut them in to whatever shapes you’d like.  I’ve taken the small extra step of dipping them in melted chocolate, they look lovely when set and the chocolate of course goes really well with the orange zest. Recipes with so few ingredients demand the very best quality produce and that’s why I use Kerrygold butter. If you want to mix things up with your biscuits you could always try using milk chocolate or white chocolate.’ Rachel Allen.

Makes 15–20 biscuits

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 5-10 minutes

What You’ll Need:

• ·         100g (3 ½ oz) Kerrygold butter, softened and diced, plus extra for greasing
• ·         150g (5oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• ·         50g (2oz) caster sugar
• ·         75g (2½ oz) dark chocolate, broken in to pieces
• ·         The grated zest of one orange

What To Do:

1.       Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°f/Gas mark 4.

2.       Grease a baking sheet with a little Kerrygold butter.

3.       Sift the flour into a large bowl and, using your fingertips, rub in the Kerrygold butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and orange zest and bring the whole mixture together to form a stiff dough. (Don’t be tempted to add any water.) Alternatively, briefly mix the ingredients in a food processor until they come together.

4.       Transfer the dough to a lightly dusted worktop and roll out to about 5mm (1/4inch) thick. Cut into rounds, fingers, squares or dinosaurs, then lift carefully on to the prepared baking sheet with a palette knife, spacing the biscuits evenly apart.

5.       Bake for 6–10 minutes or until pale golden, then remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for a minute or so before transferring to a wire rack to cool down completely.

6.       Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  When the chocolate has melted, dip the shortbread in about half way in to the chocolate, then allow any excess to drip off and place on a plate to cool and set.

Rachel’s Tip:  If you want to mix things up with your biscuits you could always try using milk chocolate or white chocolate.

Rachel Allen has teamed up with Kerrygold to produce The Kerrygold Community Recip-e-book, available for free download at the end of October. For more information on Kerrygold, the Recip-e-book and some delicious recipes visit www.facebook.com/KerrygoldUK