Happy National Cookie Month: Tate's Bake Shop Giveaway and My Homemade Nice Biscuits Recipe
There are some changes going on here at Eat Drink Wash Up and unfortunately it is causing some problems with this giveaway. Since it is more than difficult right now for new followers to sign up I am suspending this stipulation for this contest. Please feel free to sign up if you would like and you are able, but if not you are still eligible to win this giveaway by just leaving me a comment. I am so sorry for this inconvenience. Remember you can earn extra entries by liking Tate’s Bake Shop on Facebook or following them on Twitter (please see links in post). Thanks again for stopping by.
I was happy to be contacted by Tate’s Bake Shop the other day about partnering with them on another giveaway for their cookies. Some of you may remember back in December that Tate’s furnished me with an assortment of their signature thin and crispy cookies and a copy of Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook to give to one of my followers. I fell in love with their cookies and have really enjoyed the recipes that I have made from the cookbook.
This time they are introducing their Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate chip cookies which won gold at the Fancy Food Show in Washington, DC, so when they offered to send me a complimentary box of cookies to review, I quickly took them up on it.
I happened to be gone the day the cookies arrived and fortunately there were no identifying symbols on the outside so my two guys must have thought it was a box of bras or something and stayed away from it. Imagine their delight when I got home and opened the box and it was full of Tate’s new cookies.
Even though he had stuffed himself during an afternoon long cashew bender, Mr. H loved these new cookies so much he managed to down several and give them an official thumbs up before retiring to the sofa with a bit of a stomach ache. Never fear, the next morning he was back to his old self and ready to take his revenge on a couple dozen more. He’s hooked.
My son and I were bit harder to win over. We are both milk and semi-sweet chocolate lovers so we still prefer those, but don’t get me wrong these are delicious. I would have to say that if you like dark chocolate and a little less sweetness, you owe it to yourself to give these cookies a try.
Whether you are a dark chocolate, semi-sweet, milk or white chocolate lover, Tate’s has a cookie you’ll love on their website. Since it is National Cookie Month, they are celebrating by giving you a 15% discount on your purchase at tatesbakeshop.com if you enter the discount code COOKIE at checkout.
If you’d like to be entered for the giveaway which contains three packages of Tate’s Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate cookies and a signed copy of Kathleen King’s Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook, you must be a public follower of my blog and leave a comment saying you'd like to be entered. If you’d like to sweeten your chances of winning, you can earn extra entries by liking Tate’s on Facebook or following them on Twitter. If you do so, please state this in a separate comment to increase your chances. Random.org will choose my winner around noon Mountain Time on Monday, October 10th. So sorry, but this offer is good for my U.S. readers only.
Tate's Bake Shop Giveaway (Package includes 3 packages of Dark Chocolate Cookies and a signed cookbook, but sadly does not include my sweet little toast rack)
Since this is National Cookie Month, I thought I'd share a recipe for one of my favorite cookies with you. Whenever I make a trip to the UK I usually come back with a suitcase full of biscuits, crisps and chocolates that we really miss. Always at the top of my list are some little cookies called Nice Biscuits. These crispy little cookies are perfectly sweet with a subtle coconut flavor and they are just thing when you are in the mood for a light bite of something sweet.
Since I can't wait until my next trip to England to satisfy my craving for these biscuits I decided to make my own. I found the base for this recipe over at The Green Jackfruit but still had to Americanize it a bit to make it easier to bake. These cookies should be very light in appearance but still be baked long enough to be crispy. They are the perfect accompaniment for tea or coffee.
Nice Biscuits
- 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
- Pinch of salt
- 4 – 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract
- 4 tablespoons cold water
Place coconut in the bowl of a blender or mini food processor. Process until the coconut is the consistency of very coarse cornmeal; set aside.
Cream butter, salt and 3 – ½ tablespoons of the sugar in a medium size bowl with an electric mixer.
Sift together the flour and baking powder. Stir in the coconut. Add 1/3 of it at a time to the butter and sugar at a time, mixing very well after each addition.
Add the vanilla and coconut extracts and the water 1 tablespoon at a time until it makes a stiff dough. Remove from the bowl and form into a log about 3” in diameter; wrap in plastic wrap. Flatten the log on four sides to make a square (although no matter how hard I tried once baked they turned out oval). Place in the refrigerator and chill for approximately 4 hours or until it is very firm and chilled through.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Remove dough from the refrigerator. Unwrap and slice with a very sharp or serrated knife in 1/8” slices. Place on a non-stick cookie sheet and sprinkle the top of the cookies with ½ of the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Place into the preheated oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the cookies are light brown around the edges.
Remove from the oven, transfer to a cooling rack and sprinkle with the remaining sugar; let cool completely before serving.
Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies