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Kirstie Allsopp's Halloween skeleton biscuits

These biscuits make a great centrepiece for a party! The kids will love to help make them too - crunchy chocolate bourbon-style biscuits with creamy chocolate filling.

• Preparation: 15 mins
• Cooking: 10 mins
• Serves: 30

What you need:

Biscuit

• 150g (5 1/2oz) butter
• 150g (5 1/2oz) brown sugar
• 175g (6oz) Carnation Condensed Milk
• 1 egg
• 150g (5 1/2oz) plain flour
• 115g (4oz) self raising flour
• 30g (1oz) cocoa powder

Filling

• 115g (4oz) icing sugar
• 85g (3oz) butter
• 1 1/2tbsp cocoa powder

You will also need:

• Biscuit cutters or card and scissors to make your own skeleton trace
• Ready made white icing (optional)

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C for fan ovens), Gas Mark 4. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
2. Beat the butter, sugar and condensed milk together until creamy. Add the egg (don't worry if it looks like its curdling), beat well and then add the flours and cocoa powder. Cover in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Roll the dough out on a well-floured surface to the thickness of a pound coin. Cut shapes out - we made our own skeleton shape but you can make whatever shapes you like (see below tip!).
4. Transfer the biscuit shapes to the trays and bake for about 10 minutes, depending on size. Cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Beat the filling ingredients and use to sandwich the biscuits together. Ice the tops of the biscuits, if you like, with white icing.

Cook's tip:

These biscuits are great in all shapes and sizes - we used a skull shape, an oval for the body and different size bone shaped cutters for the legs and arms. Make sure that you make enough biscuits to make sandwiches for this you will need at least:

2 x skulls

2 x oval bodies

4 x long bones for legs

8 x arm bones

8 hands and feet

Try heart shapes for Valentine's or try letter shapes for a birthday party!

The condensed milk makes them extra crunchy... store them in an airtight container and they'll keep happily for about a week.

This page can be found at: http://www.secretsauce.co.uk/cakes-desserts/halloween-recipes/kirstie-allsopps-halloween-skeleton-biscuits/

A short link can also be used to view this page: http://bit.ly/pFCKRA

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