Chocolate Orange Oaty Wholewheat Sandwich Biscuits

I went for a picnic with my friend, Alice, (you know, the friend you can rant to about ANYTHING and they will, unconditionally, agree with you because they are just fantastic? That's the friend) and wanted to bake something 'healthy'. I was originally going to bake something vegan since she's heading in that direction, (I'm not a bad person, she still eats dairy, I didn't force her, I'd really like to go vegan myself, but come on, CHEESE) but since I completely forgot to shop accordingly, had a poorly stocked cupboard at the time I decided to settle on oats and wholewheat flour. As far as I am concerned those two ingredients constitute 'healthy'.

This recipe even contains the zest of A WHOLE ORANGE. One of your five a day right?

These little balls of chocolate orange goodness are crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside mmmmmm and the chocolate buttercream is moreish without being too sickly.

Feel free to increase the cocoa powder if you want your biscuits to have a more distinctive marbled look but I found that personally 15 g was enough to contrast the zesty orange when you factor in the chocolatey buttercream.

If a freshly baked batch of these is not enough of an excuse to have friends over for a cuppa and a catch up I don't know what is..

Ingredients

makes 10 sandwich biscuits

For the biscuits

75 g unsalted butter
125 g unrefined granulated sugar (+ 4 tbsp for rolling)
1 egg
50 g wholewheat flour
80 g old-fashioned jumbo rolled oats
35 g all purpose white flour
15 g cocoa powder
zest of one orange

For the chocolate buttercream filling

10 g unsalted butter
25 g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
7 g cocoa powder
1/4 tsp milk if mixture too 'dry'

Directions

1. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C then grease and line two large baking trays. Add the butter and 125 g sugar to a mixing bowl and mix until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg.
2. Divide the mixture into two, leaving half in the mixing bowl and transferring the other half into a new mixing bowl. Into one bowl add 25 g of wholewheat flour, 25 g all purpose white flour, the zest of one medium-large orange and 40 g oats. To the other bowl add 25 g wholewheat flour, 15 g cocoa powder, 10 g all purpose flour and 40 g oats. Combine both mixtures well. If either mixture feels a bit 'sloppy' and like you couldn't possible form a ball in your hands add another 20 g white flour to the mixture.
3. Using your hands - or an ice cream scoop for those less inclined to get messy - take a 2-year-old's handful of both the orange and chocolate mixtures and mould them together to make a marbled ball of mixture. Roll the ball in granulated sugar and set on the pre-lined baking tray leaving 1.5 inches between balls. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.
4. To make the chocolate buttercream filling cream together the butter and icing sugar. Sift in the cocoa powder and mix well. If the mixture is too 'dry' add 1/4 of a tsp (more if necessary) to the mix and beat well.
5. When the biscuits have cooled, using a spatula spread the buttercream generously onto half of the cookies and place the other half on top to make 'sandwiches'.
6. Serve, share, eat and ENJOY!