Matt Preston's The world's best biscuit

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4 × 180 g packets white chocolate (I use Cadbury Dream because the chunks keep their shape best)
2 cups (300 g) plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
250 g butter, at room temperature, chopped
⅔ cup (150 g) light brown sugar
¼ cup (55 g) dark brown sugar
½ cup (110 g) caster sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, lightly whisked
500 g macadamias, coarsely chopped, leaving them as chunky as you can
500 g dried cranberries

Matt Preston's The world's best biscuit Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Line two large baking trays with baking paper. Break the white chocolate into squares.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Use electric beaters to beat the butter, brown sugars and caster sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the water, vanilla and egg and beat until well combined. Beat in the flour mixture until just combined. Transfer to a very large bowl.

Stir in the chocolate chunks, macadamia and dried cranberries until well combined. With this amount of chunks it will be very thick and heavy – think of the dough merely as mortar to bind them. The mixture should come away from the sides of the bowl and form a ball. If the mixture is sticky, add a little more flour.

Drop heaped dessertspoonful sized balls of the mixture, well-spaced, onto the lined trays or until you have enough balls for the number of biscuits you want (see Tip). Bake for 10–12 minutes or until almost golden. Set aside on the tray to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Reserve some and enjoy the rest right now!

TIP

I like to split this batch of dough into a couple of bakes. Scrape any excess dough together and form into a thick (5 cm or so) sausage. Wrap in baking paper, twist the ends and pop into a labelled freezer bag. Store in the freezer until needed. When you want to cook them, slice the dough sausage into 1–2 cm thick slices using a serrated or bread knife and place on a baking
sheet, well spaced. Bake for 10–15 minutes or until golden. Rest on a rack to cool before serving. It's best to only bake as many biscuits as you need at once – these CCC will siren-call to you from the biscuit tin in the middle of the night if you bake extra!

This recipe is from Matt Preston's World of Flavour Book