(from Day to Day Cookery, 3rd edition)
This is one of my favourite recipes, though they take a bit of time to make because you have to wait until the biscuits cool before you can ice them. You can eat them without the icing, of course, but the icing is what makes them so yummy!
I’ve made these for two weddings now as wedding favours – for my youngest sister and my little brother. They hold up really well for bake sales, but I recommend you keep them cool before you package them. And they’re great for making big batches (iced or uniced) and freezing.
Biscuits
160g butter, softened
½ cup icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar)
1 ½ cups plain flour (all-purpose flour)
½ cup custard powder
- Cream butter and icing sugar.
- Sift flour and custard fine particles together. Gradually add to butter/sugar mix.
TIP Be careful – if your beaters are too fast, more flour mix will end up out of the bowl than in. Ask me how I know 😉 Also, you may need to mix the dough by hand to bring it all together at the end, because it will stiffen right up.
- Roll into small balls and place on a tray. Flour a fork so it doesn’t stick to the biscuits, and press each ball down slightly.
- Bake in a slow to moderate oven until a pale golden colour.
- Cool on a wire rack but be careful – they’re fragile when they’re still warm.
Icing
The original recipe says you should join biscuits in pairs with lemon icing, but I like to go over the top with the custard, and use custard icing instead.
1 tablespoon-ish of softened butter
1 cup icing (confectioner’s) sugar
½ to 1 tablespoon of custard powder
Milk, to bring the icing together.
Mix the sugar and icing sugar together in a bowl. Add in the butter and a dash of milk. I like to mix it with a flat knife because it brings it together better. Then just add dashes of milk until the icing is about the consistency of butter – thick and pliable enough to spread on the biscuits without too much effort.
Make sure the biscuits are cold when you put them together, and if the top biscuit slides off, the icing is too wet. Just add a little more icing sugar to thicken the icing up.
If you make these biscuits, I’d love to see them! You can email me at mail at srsilcox.com or if you put a photo up on social media, tag me (srsilcox everywhere) so I can drool over them *grin*