Empire biscuits are easy to make. Old-fashioned but delicious they still grace the teatime table. They are simply a sandwich of biscuit with raspberry jam and top of thick white icing and a glacé cherry to complete the picture. Drink with a cup of tea.
These biscuits will keep for up to 5 days in a tin.
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Timings:
Preparation time:ooking time: chilling and setting.
Put the butter, flour, 85g of the icing sugar, the vanilla and egg yolks in a food processor and pulse in bursts until combined. The other method is to rub together the butter and flour with your fingertips and mix in the sugar, vanilla and egg yolks.
Add ½ tbsp water to stop the mixture getting too dry. Tip this mix onto a cold work surface and briefly knead until the dough has come together.
Wrap and chill for 30 mins.
Heat the oven to 180°C/160ºC fan/gas 4. It can be slightly higher – say
Line two baking trays with baking parchment.
Lightly dust your work surface with flour and roll the dough out to around 3mm thick.
Cut up to 24 rounds from the dough with a 7cm cutter. Bring the remaining scraps of pastry together and reroll to make more biscuits.
Line up the discs of dough on the baking sheets, then bake for 10-12 mins or until lightly golden brown around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Mix the remaining icing sugar with 2-3 tsp of water to make a very thick icing.
Spoon or pipe the icing over the top of half of the biscuits, leaving a border around the edge of each one.
Top with a small piece of glacé cherry or other decoration in the centre, then leave to set for 30 mins. Spread the jam over the un-iced biscuits and sandwich together with the iced halves.
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