Signature challenge: 30 identical American-style cookies in two hours, any flavor, with an appropriate decorative finish, crisp to the bite with a chewy center. 

Inspired by the Daim chocolate bar, Tom packed his cookies with chewy almond praline and milk chocolate chunks and topped them with salted roasted peanuts and a fine drizzle of spun dark chocolate. 

Tom and boyfriend Alex recently spent several months backpacking around Southeast Asia. 

{Tom}: "I'm dead excited for week two. I can't wait to just get stuck in and get baking." 

{Tom}: "There's going to be 500 grams of chocolate in the cookies. I'm not messing about." 

{Tom}: "So today I'm making a cookie that is going to have some almond praline, almost. If you think of a Daim bar, it's going to be that kind of filling. So it's called a Nordic crunch cookie because the chocolate bar did originate, I think, in Norway." 

Nigella summed it up as crunch and goo. {Tom}: "Yeah, exactly. That's what we want." 

{Tom}: "I'm just shaping them so they've got a nice uniform ring to them rather than being all spread out." 

{Tom}: "They look nice and tasty, them. They're getting a nice little drizzle of chocolate." 

{Tom, presenting to judges}: "So they are flavored with an almond praline, milk chocolate and then salted peanuts, drizzled with dark chocolate and then finished off with the peanuts on top." 

{Tom, post-judging}: "I can't believe it. I'm so shocked. It's the best start to biscuit week we could have asked for, really."