This biscuit is a common sight in all bakeries in Northern Ireland and throughout the UK in and commonwealth in various differing forms, but all the same concept. Sometimes called the German Biscuit or Scottish Empire Biscuit. This is a wonderful sandwich of two melt in your mouth biscuits with jam in the middle and thick icing on top, finished off with a wonderful cherry. There was always a plate of Empire Biscuits on my grandmothers kitchen table.
Makes approx 12-15 biscuits depending on the size of cookie cutter you use.
The Ingredients:
Biscuits:
225g Butter
100g Silver Spoon® Caster Sugar
270g Neills® Plain Flour
0.5tsp Nielsen Massey Vanilla Paste
Filling:
0.5 Jar of Jam
400g Silver Spoon® Icing Sugar
40ml Milk
0.5tsp Nielsen Massey Vanilla Paste
6-8 Glacé Cherries (Halved)
Recommended Equipment:
Food Mixer (Recommended Bosch MUM46A1)
Joseph Joseph Nest9 Bowls
Pyrex Bowl
SilPat Non Stick Silicone Mat
The How-To:
Preheat oven to 180c.
Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the vanilla paste.
Mix in the sieved flour until a ball of dough forms, this may take some mixing so best to use a mixer if you have one.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until around 0.5cm thick. Cut with round biscuit/cookie cutters.
Place the biscuits on baking parchment on a baking tray, leaving approx 1 inch between each biscuit.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 8-10 mins when they will appear lightly golden.
They will still be soft when they they come out of the oven but they crisp up as they cool. Allow to rest on the baking tray for 5 mins before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Spread a little jam on the biscuits, just enough to stick them together. You may want to try this with one pair of biscuits first as you will be surprised at how little jam you need to use, too much and it will squeeze out the sides and look messy.
Once you have assembled all the biscuits mix the milk and icing sugar and vanilla paste together in a small bowl. The mixture should be very thick. Place a blob of this icing on top of each biscuit sandwich and spread out gently. It will continue to spread a little more as it sets.
While the icing is still wet and sticky place half a cherry on each biscuit.
You’re Done!
Hi. I love food blogs and a friend told me about yours and also "Cooking With Mr. C." on Facebook. I just "Liked" his page and came to check you out. It looks great. I love when people share food blogs with each other. Anne
These look great! My mum calls them German Biscuits, then always asks 'is it still okay to call them that?' – I'd love to try these out!
I've been looking for a recipe for these biscuits for a few days now but I couldn't figure out the proper name for them. So glad I stumbled across your blog and this recipe. Excited to try it!
inkatiescorner.blogspot.ie
i've never actually heard of these before but they look great.
http://eeebgum.blogspot.co.uk/