Decadent Chocolate Fingers

My SIL in Sept-Iles Quebec makes these for me everytime we come to visit her. The recipe always looked complicated, but I tried it here at home yesterday and it was so easy. But a kind warning...these are TOO GOOD! Don't blame me if they all get eaten at once.

CHOCOLATE FINGERS
(taken from Canadian Living magazine, December 29, 1993)

INGREDIENTS
BASE:
1 pkg (400g) digestive biscuits (you can substitute 1-3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs)
½ cup finely chopped nuts

½ cup butter
½ cup granulated sugar (my SIL uses Splenda)
½ cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder

1 Tbsp instant coffee granules
1 Tbsp hot water

2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla

GLAZE:
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tbsp shortening (Crisco seems to work best…butter apparently is not as smooth)

INSTRUCTIONS
Line 8-inch square pan with waxed or parchment paper, leaving enough paper hanging over the edges for easy removal later.

BASE:
1. Using food processor or rolling pin, crush biscuits until in fine crumbs (or save yourself the time and trouble by just using graham cracker crumbs!) Transfer to bowl and add nuts.

2. In saucepan or bowl set over simmering water: melt butter; whisk in sugar and cocoa.

3. Dissolve coffee in water; add to pan and cook over simmering water, whisking for 1 minute or until thickened and sugar is dissolved.

4. Whisk in eggs and vanilla; cook, whisking, for 4-5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Remove from heat.

5. With fork, stir in crumb mixture. Mix well (I use my fingers)

6. Press firmly into prepared pan (lined with wax paper). Cover and refrigerate until cool, about 1 hour.

GLAZE: (don’t prepare this until base is cooled and ready)
1. In saucepan over simmering water, stir chocolate with shortening until melted and smooth.

2. Pour over base, spreading evenly.
3. Cover and refrigerate until set.

4. Using waxed paper as handles, lift square from pan. Cut into small squares or fingers.

5. Keep covered in refrigerator. These will keep for several days - but only if you keep them hidden!

They also freeze well. It's especially delightful if you forget you put them there and then one gloomy day suddenly find them again!

(Per finger: about 175 calories, 2 g protein, 11 g fat, 18 g carbohydrate)

[ January 30, 2006, 08:48 PM: Message edited by: Eagle Heart ]

These sound wonderful. Chocolate and coffee is such a luscious combination. This is the kind of thing I would make for a special occasion. I'll have to keep this one in mind.

Your SIL must love you if she makes these especially for you. What a labor of love.

When the kids were little we bake/cooked all the time. Now I don't seem to have the time to bake as often. I guess it's just as well because everyone is watching what they eat. I guess that's part of growing up.

This particular SIL is one of my favourite people in the world. Such an amazing kind and loving heart. When she knows we're coming to visit, she makes all our favourite foods, but not just hubby's (her brother), but MINE too! And it's that much more a labour of love when you know that she's gone blind in one eye. I don't know anyone else who does that for me except my best friend Kate!

How fortunate you are to have a wonderful friend/relative like her. I am a bit confused about what a digestive biscuit is. Are they cake biscuits or bread biscuits? This does sound very good and I want to try it just to see but I do eat too much of my own cooking, alas!

The biscuits she & I used weren't official "digestive", they were a cheaper brand called "Maria". Lot of help that is, since I think it's a Quebec brand. I would describe them as a very basic adult version of arrowroot cookies, or maybe like "social tea" cookies. Does that sound familiar at all? They're the kind I eat when my stomach is queasy (but not soda crackers), like when I'm traveling.

My SIL also said you could use graham cracker crumbs. They're more expensive, but then they're already crushed, so that saves a step. She's never tried them but thinks they'd be just as delicious. I'm thinking of trying them in the next batch.

When I made these the other day, I sent half over to our next door neighbour...single Mom with a chocoholic teenage daughter...she's still raving about them and hinting for more!

Wish I could send you some, Chatty, just to see if you like them. But they'd melt before I even got them to the post office, much less all the way to the deserts of Nevada!

Thanks Eagle Heart I know what you mean now and am going to try the graham crackers. They sound so good. Thanks for the thought anyway and yes they would most certainly melt, would I lick the box clean, darn right I would...lol

Eagle, I'm stepping out here and printing your recipe as we *speak*. I'm having a baby shower in a couple weeks for my niece. This is going to be the new recipe I try. Thanks for sharing. I know it will be a hit. I hope she isn't reading these forums. It will ruin the surprise.

A couple of nights ago, I woke up at 3am, worried and stressed out about what was happening on this site, as well as the hurricane stuff. I lay in bed trying to calm myself, but to no avail. Then I remembered the chocolate fingers sitting in my fridge. I rarely eat chocolate at night, precisely because of my problems with insomnia. But it was an emergency situation, so I did go downstairs, sat and slowly enjoyed every morsel of that chocolate finger, then went back to bad and fell promptly back to sleep.

So it's not only a great recipe, it also ranks high on the list of emergency supplies!

Eagle, I bought all the ingredients to make these for the shower on Saturday. We had also bought a couple desserts. Guess what? About an hour before the shower I saw the ingredients in the cupboard and realized I hadn't made them. Good grief. Now I'm prepared for the next get-together. I'll let you know when Im ake them. I'm going to use the graham cracker crumb version.

Dotsie, we had supper at our next-door neighbour's house last night. Hubby's working on her basement, building a room that she can rent out for extra income. The 11-year-old daughter's birthday was Thursday, but she's waiting until the basement's finished before she has her BIG birthday party. And she hinted that she'd REALLY like some chocolate fingers for her party. So I'll try the graham cracker crumb version too when I make her birthday batch. I have to admit that I crave some more of them myself!

What a generous guy. Wow! You must be close to your neighbors. That's wonderful.

Am I the only one thinking "what the heck is a digestive biscuit??" Is it made by Metamucil? Or
Purina? I would like to know so I can make these...they are, after all, chocolate.

quote:

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Originally posted by Western Bluebird:
"what the heck is a digestive biscuit??"

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Well, Bluebird, here's everything you wanted to know (and probably more) about digestive biscuits. If you REALLY want more information, just Google "digestive biscuit" or "digestive cookies" and surf to your heart's content.

And you can probably use graham cracker crumbs in place of the digestive cookies...Chatty and Dotsie were going to try that, but I haven't heard back on if or how they did.

1.From: http://www.soci.org/SCI/general/2004/html/ge370.jsp

A bite-sized history of the digestive biscuit: The digestive biscuit had long been a staple of the Scottish bakery business. It was invented [in Scotland by McVities]…in 1839 and contained an antacid, bicarbonate of soda, to aid digestion.

The famous biscuit rapidly caught on, partly due to its attractiveness as an early convenience food. Scotland’s population was becoming increasingly urbanized at the time, and apart from stuffing biscuits in pockets and lunchboxes, many more would have had tea at home or in such famous tearooms as Lyon’s Tea Shop.

The biscuits, while seemingly old-fashioned, have never gone out of fashion. Today over 71 million packets of chocolate digestives are eaten in the UK each year, apparently 52 biscuits per second.


2. From: http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/biscuits/previous.php3?item=9

The undisputed king of the large diameter biscuits, this is truly an iconic biscuit.

Found in two main varieties, SweetMeal and WholeMeal, the digestive biscuit sets a standard for the whole biscuit world. Its satisfying nature makes the biscuit eater consider how many to have at a time 1, 2 or maybe 3. It's versatile, providing the base for many more elaborate biscuits, (see Chocolate Caramels), and even chocolate covered biscuit bars such as the Breakaway, or the base for Cheesecakes.

Once again the biscuit shown here is from McVities, and it’s a WholeMeal. Other people attempt to make digestives but they taste like cardboard compared to the mighty McVities.
I have seen girls slip a sheet of kitchen roll in the bottom of their biscuit tins, when opening a new packet of digestives, and although this is completely unnecessary, it is strangely alluring.


2. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digestive_biscuit

Digestive biscuit: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A digestive biscuit is a semi-sweet biscuit known for its qualities that enable it to be easily digested. The typical digestive biscuit contains wheat flour, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, sugar, wholemeal, cultured skimmed milk, partially inverted sugar syrup, raising agents, and salt.
An average of around 70 calories are present in a digestive biscuit, although this varies according to the factors involved in its production.

Chocolate digestive biscuits also are available, coated (one side only) in either milk chocolate or plain chocolate. Other recent varieties (introduced by the main manufacturer of digestives in the UK and Ireland – McVitie's) include the basic biscuit with chocolate shavings throughout, or a topping of caramel as well as chocolate.

Digestive biscuits are frequently eaten in the UK with tea; the biscuit is partially dunked to soak up a small amount of tea, quickly removed, and the sodden part eaten. Coffee may also be used. The duration of dunking required is a matter of personal taste; however, it is limited by the biscuit's tendency to disintegrate when saturated, with the sodden part sinking into the bottom of the mug. The consumer is usually unaware of this until they raise the biscuit and find it is cut off at the water line.