Name: Jumbo Animal Biscuit
Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients: 12oz plain flour; 8oz butter; 4oz castor sugar; 2 bars Cadbury’s chocolate

Jumbo Animal Biscuit: the archived recipe

Condensed from the original account by Melissa Parsons, published 2006-09-18. The quantities and method are the contributor’s; this is not a new kitchen test.

Ingredients recorded

12oz plain flour

8oz butter

4oz castor sugar

2 bars Cadbury’s chocolate

The flour, butter and sugar are given in ounces; the chocolate is 2 bars without a weight, and the bar size is not legible in the ingredient photograph. The finished biscuit measured 33 X 21 cm and weighed 24 ozs against 4.5 X 3.0 cm for the original; the calorie figures in the account are the contributor’s.

Method recorded

Make a template: draw round an animal biscuit on small squares, then copy the outline onto bigger squares.

Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the butter and rub together to breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and bring it together into a dough.

Roll the dough out until it is big enough to cover the template, cut out the shape and add the details.

Move the biscuit onto greaseproof paper and a baking tray (the contributor’s elephant lost part of an ear), and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes for a crisper biscuit.

Bake for 30 minutes at 150c, checking often towards the end so it does not burn.

Once cool, cover the back with melted chocolate; the squared pattern of the original did not take because the chocolate was still wet.

The original account

After weeks of annoying my collaegues with talk about snacks that I could pimp I decided that it was time I
take action and actually do one! The first challenge I faced was finding something that hadn’t yet been pimped,
after scouring the supermarket shelves I finally came up with the idea of Animal biscuits.

I wasn’t sure what the biscuit base was but decieded that short bread would be the best bet and hopefully not that
difficult to make. So the ingredients were:

12oz plain flour
8oz butter
4oz castor sugar
2 bars Cadbourys’s chocolate

Ingredients on a kitchen worktop: Stork, plain flour, caster sugar, two Cadbury Animals boxes and Dairy Milk bars

The second challenge I faced was which animal to pimp, I didn’t realise there were so many!

Nine original Cadbury Animals biscuits laid out in rows on a white sheet of paper

I decided that since the whole aim of the project was to make the bisuit bigger I should opt for the elephant.

Two small animal biscuits placed on graph paper, ready to be measured and scaled up

The next thing I did was to make a template. To do this I drew around the bisuit on small squares, then I
copied this onto some bigger squares.

Hand-drawn elephant outline scaled up across gridded paper, with the original tiny biscuit alongside

Then it was time to make the shortbread. To make this, sieve the flour into a bowl, add the butter and rub together
to make bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar and make it into a dough.

Sugar tipped onto creamed butter and flour dough in a large blue mixing bowl

Roll out the dough until it’s big enough to cover the template. Cut out and add on the details.

Gridded paper elephant template laid over rolled-out dough on a floured worktop, ready to cut around

Then I had to try and get the bisuit onto the baking tray. There was a slight injury to the elephant’s right ear
but eventually I got it onto some greased proof paper and then onto the baking tray. I put it into the frige for 15 minutes
as this is meant to make ‘crispier’ biscuits.

Giant elephant-shaped dough cut out on baking parchment, face and legs scored into the surface

It then went into the oven for 30 minutes on 150c. Although after 20 minutes I was opening the oven door every minute
to make sure it didn’t burn.

The baked giant elephant biscuit, pale gold and slightly puffed, cooling on kitchen foil

Once the biscuit was cool, I covered the back in melted chocolate. I tried to replicate the squared pattern that
the original biscuits have but the chocolate was still too wet hence the non-squared pattern.

Melted milk chocolate spread across the giant biscuit in thick combed ridges

Some comparrison shots from the back.

Chocolate-coated giant animal biscuit on foil beside a single original-sized biscuit for scale

And some comparrison shots from the front.

Plain baked underside of the huge biscuit on foil, tiny original biscuit alongside for scale

Some statistics:

Original size

Calories per biscuit 20
Size 4.5 X 3.0 cm
Weight didn’t register

Jumbo sixe

Calores per biscuit 4000
size 33 X 21 cm
Weight 24 ozs

Jumbo Animal Biscuit

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