Custard creams

 

If I’m offered a selection tin of biscuits to choose from my first thought will always be to look for the custard creams and the pink wafers.  OK, that’s a lie; my first thought is actually ‘how many can I take without it looking greedy/weird/unusual/rude?’  I’m always glad if someone else has gone first and set the bar high!

What I’m trying to say is that I love custard creams.  Unless you’re rocking some serious high end chocolate biscuits in your tin, these babies are top of the tree.  Some of you will recoil in horror, others will frantically nod in agreement, but I love dunking them in a mug of tea just long enough so that the creamy filling becomes softer and the biscuit is on the cusp of soggy.  It is a reckless person who ‘over dunks’ and loses their biscuit to the sad resting place at the bottom of the mug.  Mushy biscuit at the bottom of a mug is a sign of bad biscuit management.

I will freely admit that the homemade version lacks the ornate squiggles so loved on the commercially farmed version, but what’s the point in a homemade version looking the same?  Isn’t the point of homemade that it does look different?  The big benefit of making them at home is that you get to control the size of the biscuit.  I have used the, ‘I only had one biscuit’ line many times failing to explain that the biscuit was the size of a dinner plate.  I’m exaggerating (honestly) but you get my drift!

To aim for some sort of uniformity I used my kitchen ruler to determine the biscuit size.  I may sound a bit OCD but I have a ruler in my kitchen which is handy for so many things, most commonly measuring cake tins because I often forget their dimensions.  This ruler has been my trusted culinary companion for years now; to save you straining to see what it is, it’s got all the cantons of Switzerland on it.

Ingredients

For the biscuits:

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
50g golden caster sugar
50g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
300g plain flour

For the custard filling:

100 unsalted butter, at room temperature
140g icing sugar
2 tablespoons custard powder
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
Optional: a few drops of yellow food colouring – I used Dr Oetker natural gel colouring

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/390°F/gas mark 6.

Line three baking sheets (if you only have two line those but be prepared to rotate the sheets for the second batch) with either baking paper or non stick foil.

Start with the biscuit dough: Beat together the butter, both sugars, egg yolks and vanilla until they are well combined and creamy looking.

Add half the flour and mix well.

Add the remaining flour and mix well; use your hand to bring the dough together.

Roll the dough out between two lightly floured sheets of clingfilm – aim for the thickness of a £1 coin.

Use the cutter of your choice to cut the dough then place the biscuits on the prepared trays.  Leave a little room for expansion although they do not spread much during baking.  (NB. If, like me, you’re using a ruler lightly flour it so it doesn’t stick to the dough).

Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes or until golden in colour.  Don’t worry if they take longer – trust your eyes more than your timer!

Leave the biscuits on the baking sheet to crisp up before you move them to a wire rack to cool completely.  If you try and move them too soon they can crumble.

Now make the filling: Beat all the ingredients together until smooth and whippy looking.

Either pipe or spread some of the filling onto one biscuit, and use another biscuit to sandwich.

Repeat until all the biscuits are paired up.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.