Thursday, 11 February 2010

Custard Cream Biscuits



I'm not a fan of custard cream biscuits at all, in fact I don't remember the last time I ate one. I'm always a bit disappointed if someone offers me a biscuit and pulls out a custard cream. I'm not sure there is a worse choice of biscuit. My children and husband however adore them and I can safely say that the custard cream is probably their favourite biscuit.

These custard creams are nothing like the shop bought ones - these are beautiful. Just truly scrumptious and I am sitting here wondering why I've not made them more. These biscuits are the custard cream hearts from Nigella Lawson's Feast book, except I did circles not hearts as I was taking them into the office and well, hearts are a bit twee aren't they? Fine to make for my beloved in the privacy of our home - not so fine for my beloved to eat at his desk in front of our colleagues!

The recipe makes around 14 hearts (if you roll the dough out correctly, less if you are a bit like me and tend to do it too thick!).

Custard Cream Biscuits

Ingredients

175g plain flour
3 tbsps Bird's custard powder
1 tsp baking powder
50g unsalted butter
50g vegetable shortening
3 tbsps caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp milk (or more if needed)

For the custard cream;
1 tbsp Bird's custard powder
100g icing sugar
50g soft unsalted butter
1 tsp boiling water

Method

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180c.

To make the biscuits, put the flour, custard powder and baking powder into a processor and pulse to mix. Add the butter, cut into smallish cubes and the vegetable shortening in mounded tsps and pulse to cut into the flour to create a crumbly mixture.

Tip in the sugar and pulse again. Beat the egg and tbsp milk together. Pour down the funnel of the processor with the engine running until it clumps into a ball. (Go cautiously, you may not need all of the egg and milk or you may need to add more milk to make it come together). Form the dough into a ball and press down into a fat disc, wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 4mm. Dip a 5cm heart shaped cutter in flour and cut out your shapes. You will want an even number of hearts to sandwich together. Prick the outside edge of each heart all the way around on one side with a corn on the cob holder. Cook on a lined baking sheet for 15 minutes, and then leave to cool before sandwiching them.

To make the custard cream, put the custard powder and icing sugar into the processor and pulse briefly to combine and de-lump. Add the butter and blitz together until you get a smooth cream. Add the tsp of boiling water and pulse again.

Sandwich each biscuit with about 1tsp of custard cream by gently spreading a layer of cream over the unpricked side of a biscuit and then wiggling a matching top on it.

The biscuits are featured in the Valentine's Day section of the book, perfect seeing as it's only days away but remember custard cream hearts are for life, not just for Valentine's Day...

love & kisses
Mrs M x

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