Surprisingly scrumptious custard creams

After doing a mini road trip around the Midlands, North Wales and parts of northern England for our hols and getting settled back in to school, I've finally got back to cooking  and as promised have made some rather lovely custard cream biscuits with the help of my delightful son (well, he was behaving particularly delightful on this occasion anyway!)

This recipe is from Kate Shirazi's Baking Magic (2010) page 198 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Baking-Magic-Kate-Shirazi/dp/186205889X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347786492&sr=1-1 which was mentioned in my last post. My sister also happens to own a copy of this book and has enjoyed making a number of the cup cake recipes for various parties and dos. In fact it was tasting some of the Lemonylicious cupcakes on page 32 that inspired me to get my own copy of this book - gorgeous little cakes filled with lemon curd and creme fraiche. Other recipes I have tried are the Chocolate Maltesers cupcakes page 35 (always a winner with the children),  Lemon and almond crumbles page 128 (moreish and irresistible) and the Carrot cupcakes with honey orange cream cheese frosting page 30 (satisfying morsels of subtle carrot and cream cheese).

Homemade custard creams

Custard Creams (Copyright Kate Shirazi, 2010, Susannah Blake 2009)

Makes about 15 -18 biscuits
175g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
3 tbsp proper custard powder

Weighing out the ingredients

1 tsp baking powder
60g white vegetable fat (eg. Trex)
60g butter 
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp milk

Filling:
50g butter, softened
1 tbsp custard powder
100g icing sugar, sifted

Chopped butter and vegetable fat

Rubbing in the fats

Having fun mixing it all up!

Ready for the oven

Creaming the butter and icing sugar

Sandwiching together the biscuits

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and line a couple of baking sheets.
2. Place the flour, custard powder and baking powder into a large bowl.
3. Chop the butter and vegetable fat in to little pieces and rub in to the mixture until you have a consistency of sand.
4. Add the sugar and milk until well combined.
5. In another bowl, beat eggs and milk together lightly and then pour on to the flour mixture and get your hands in to form it in to a ball.
6. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes or freeze it at this stage to use another day.
7. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until its about 3mm thick. Cut the sheet of dough into long strips about 3cm wide and 4cm in length. Lay on baking tray and bake for 15 minutes.
8. Transfer the biscuits to a rack to cool and then make the filling.
9. Cream the butter, custard powder and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy, adding a few drops of hot water if the mixture seems stiff and not quite the consistency you would like.
10. Sandwich two biscuits together and try not to eat the whole batch in one afternoon!

Out of the two types of biscuits we made we actually thought these were the best in terms of taste and moreishness! Next time we would try and find a pattern we could imprint on the biscuits to give them that extra flair but overall a recipe that's great to do with the kids.

Next time: I'm going to be scouring the books for something nice and veggie