Makes 24-30 (depending on shape and size of cutter)
Sandwiched together with jam and buttercream, these star-shaped biscuits are just jam-tastic!
There are no biscuits like British biscuits. When I go back to the mother country and go to the supermarket, I often take a walk down the biscuit aisle and it’s like a trip down Memory Lane. All my childhood favourites are there like Bourbons, Garibaldi and Toffypops (my nana’s favourite) to name but a few.
These days I prefer to bake my biscuits rather than buy them, but that doesn’t mean I love them any less. Now if two of my biscuity favourites, the Custard Cream and the Jammy Dodger had a biscuit baby, I think this would be it. Sweet, crunchy biscuits sandwiched together with jam and buttercream! What could be better?! Don’t worry about answering that, it’s a rhetorical question 🙂
If you make star shapes, they’ll totally fit the Christmas bill, but whatever shape you choose, it will be love at first bite with these biscuits. They certainly left my taste testers quite starry eyed!
For best results, you need Goldilocks butter, that’s not too hard, not too soft, just right. If you take it out of the fridge an hour before biscuit business, you’ll be right. This recipe will make more than two trays of biscuits, after the first batch of cookies have cooled on the tray, allow the trays themselves to cool, otherwise your new, unbaked cookies will start to bake and spread before they have even got into the oven and that would never do!
There’s a regular recipe and a Thermomix conversion, but however you make these, they’ll be jamtastic!
Ingredients
125g butter
220g caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
300g self raising flour
65g custard powder
FOR THE FILLING
100g butter, at room temperature
150g icing sugar
strawberry jam, to serve
icing sugar, to dust
How to – Traditional
-
- Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan-forced. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, then add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
- Fold in the flour and custard powder until the mixture is firm.
- Bring the dough together, cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Divide dough in half. Roll each portion between two sheets of baking paper about 5mm thickness and cut out stars using a 5 1/2 cm star cutter.
- Carefully place the stars on to the baking trays and bake for 7-10 minutes until golden.
- Cool on trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the filling, beat butter until pale and creamy, then add the icing sugar and beat until combined.
- To assemble the biscuits, spread a little icing on to one star biscuit and top with half a teaspoon of jam, and sandwich together with another star biscuit. Don’t worry if the buttercream and jam oozes out of the side, that’s all part of the fun. Continue with remaining biscuits, filling and jam. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
How to – Thermomix
-
- Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan-forced. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Mix flour and custard powder for 5 seconds on speed 5. Set aside.
- Chop the butter for 5 seconds on speed 7.
- Add the sugar and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5, scrape down base and sides of bowl and mix for another 20 seconds on speed 4.
- Add vanilla paste and egg and mix for 20 seconds on speed 4.
- Add the flour and custard powder going from speed 1 to speed 4 until the mixture is firm and is starting to come together.
- Bring the dough together on a lightly floured surface, cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Divide dough in half. Roll each portion between two sheets of baking paper about 5mm thickness and cut out stars using a 5 1/2 cm star cutter.
- Carefully place the stars on to the baking trays and bake for 7-10 minutes until golden.
- Cool on trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the filling, add butter and sugar to TM bowl and mix for 2 minutes on reverse speed 2.
- To assemble the biscuits, spread a little icing on to one star biscuit and top with half a teaspoon of jam, and sandwich together with another star biscuit. Don’t worry if the buttercream and jam oozes out of the side, that’s all part of the fun. Continue with remaining biscuits, filling and jam. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
