Festive Baking with Louise | Homemade Custard Cream Biscuits

GBBO is on the telly, the irony being we have watched a fair amount of it whilst in lockdown. Trying to keep the kids entertained whilst being unable to take them out unless it is for the allocated hour.

My daughter has been using this as a prime excuse to turn into a moody teenager and lock herself in the bedroom, the one way to get her attention is to offer to bake together as even at 11 she is never too old to enjoy baking or lick the bowl once I have put whatever I am baking into the oven.

My niece also has a sweet tooth so a family baking session every other Saturday is how I manage to keep the girls entertained and keep myself semi sane.

This weeks recipe: Custard creams

You will need these items to prepare and cook the biscuits

– Greaseproof paper
– Non stick flat trays x2
– A rolling pin
– A whisk
– Clingfilm
– Mixing bowls x 2
– A baking sieve 9 (a wire mesh one)
– A set of scales
– Cookie cutters – I use round ones

Ingredients

This recipe makes roughly 25 custard creams.

– 225 g of softened butter
– 115 g of caster sugar
– 1 tbsp of vanilla extract
– 3 tbsp of milk
– 340 g of sieved plain flour
– 125 g of instant custard powder

For the icing that goes inside the biscuit:

– 300 g of icing sugar
– 150 g of unsalted softened butter
– 1 heaped tablespoon of custard powder
– 2 tsp of vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180ºC, fan 160ºC. Put the butter and sugar into a food processor and beat until combined. Add the vanilla extract and milk and beat until combined. Add the flour and custard powder and beat together until you have a ball of smooth dough. Alternatively, beat the ingredients in the order above with a wooden spoon, then use your hands to gather the mixture together in a ball.

2. Shape the dough into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 1 hr.

3. Once firm, I dust the work surface, roll out the dough until I know it is about 5 mm thick, then I use cookie cutters and count out 50 rounds to put on my baking trays.

4. Bake in the oven for 8 mins, or until the edges begin to turn a pale golden-brown colour. Remove with a palette knife and leave to cool on a wire rack. I find going with your gut with this is a good route, biscuits continue cooking once out of the oven until they start cooling down so always take out at about 8 mins.

5. For the filling, cream together the icing sugar, butter, custard powder and vanilla extract in a mixer or with a wooden spoon until smooth. Spoon a teaspoon of the filling onto the base of a biscuit and evenly spread to the edges using a small palette knife. Top with another biscuit. Repeat until all the biscuits and filling has been used up.

The biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Tip: When placing the rectangles on the baking tray, you can afford to place them relatively close to each other as they don’t spread much. That way you can bake them in quick batches and minimise on oven space.

As always

Many thanks for reading

Louise Xx

Louise uses our Platinum with Vitamin E range to keep her stoma site healthy. Try a sample here.