These chocolate wheels are really just slightly fancier versions of your basic chocolate/vanilla biscuit (cookie) I found this recipe for Chocolate Wheels (which are really just a type of biscuit/cookie) in a magazine when we lived in the (now) city of Arusha, Tanzania about 8 years ago (I say ‘now’ as it has recently been granted city status whereas in those days it was still considered to be a ‘town’). My Mum used to regularly send South African magazines to me, and this came from one of them – although I can’t remember which one now !
Anyway - at the time I was working full time, running a busy restaurant on the outskirts of the city and also managing the coffee lodge adjacent to it, which had just opened it’s doors for the first time – so we were still in the initial teething stages. I was working 24/7 and eating most of my meals at the restaurant whilst on duty, but employed a head houseman & cook (his name was Godwin) to prepare all the meals we ate at home. I have fond memories of teaching Godwin how to make these Chocolate Wheels, and every time I make them now - as I'm kneading & rolling & cutting the dough - I think back to that rather hectic time in my life.
The recipe lasted longer than Godwin did I’m afraid, as we had many problems with him and he started drinking quite excessively and not caring for the animals properly – so we had to let him go in the end, soon after we'd moved to the farm we lived on before this one. I then slowly trained up Godwin’s cousin, who was also our part-time gardener (who also performed askari/night watchmen duties for us) to work in the house and the rest, as they say, is history as his name was Justin and yes, he is the same Justin who's been with me ever since !
Anyway - at the time I was working full time, running a busy restaurant on the outskirts of the city and also managing the coffee lodge adjacent to it, which had just opened it’s doors for the first time – so we were still in the initial teething stages. I was working 24/7 and eating most of my meals at the restaurant whilst on duty, but employed a head houseman & cook (his name was Godwin) to prepare all the meals we ate at home. I have fond memories of teaching Godwin how to make these Chocolate Wheels, and every time I make them now - as I'm kneading & rolling & cutting the dough - I think back to that rather hectic time in my life.
The recipe lasted longer than Godwin did I’m afraid, as we had many problems with him and he started drinking quite excessively and not caring for the animals properly – so we had to let him go in the end, soon after we'd moved to the farm we lived on before this one. I then slowly trained up Godwin’s cousin, who was also our part-time gardener (who also performed askari/night watchmen duties for us) to work in the house and the rest, as they say, is history as his name was Justin and yes, he is the same Justin who's been with me ever since !
Chocolate Wheels
175 gm Butter
80 gm Icing Sugar
500 gm Flour, sifted
¼ cup Milk
15 gm unsweetened Cocoa Powder, sifted
Cream the butter & icing sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the flour & milk to this, & mix/knead well to blend. Split the dough in half, leaving half plain and adding the cocoa powder to the other half, blending it into the dough well.
Chill in the fridge for about an hour & then remove and roll each part of the dough (separately) into a rectangular shape on a lightly floured surface. (Trim off the excess pieces of dough so that both rectangles are the same shape and size.)
Now place the chocolate rectangle of dough on top of the plain rectangle of dough & gently roll both up together to form one long sausage shape. Wrap this long roll of dough tightly in plastic wrap & place back in the fridge for another hour.
Remove from fridge and slice the ‘sausage’ of dough into even pieces/rounds. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for 10 to 15 minutes until done.
Makes around 25 to 30 biscuits (cookies) depending on how thickly you cut the ‘sausage’.
175 gm Butter
80 gm Icing Sugar
500 gm Flour, sifted
¼ cup Milk
15 gm unsweetened Cocoa Powder, sifted
Cream the butter & icing sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the flour & milk to this, & mix/knead well to blend. Split the dough in half, leaving half plain and adding the cocoa powder to the other half, blending it into the dough well.
Chill in the fridge for about an hour & then remove and roll each part of the dough (separately) into a rectangular shape on a lightly floured surface. (Trim off the excess pieces of dough so that both rectangles are the same shape and size.)
Now place the chocolate rectangle of dough on top of the plain rectangle of dough & gently roll both up together to form one long sausage shape. Wrap this long roll of dough tightly in plastic wrap & place back in the fridge for another hour.
Remove from fridge and slice the ‘sausage’ of dough into even pieces/rounds. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for 10 to 15 minutes until done.
Makes around 25 to 30 biscuits (cookies) depending on how thickly you cut the ‘sausage’.
