About the Recipe
Ingredients
225g unsalted butter, softened
115g golden caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
340g plain flour
125g custard powder (we used Bird’s)
1-2 tbsp whole milk
For the filling
300g icing sugar, sifted
150g unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp custard powder
20g freeze-dried strawberries (from larger supermarkets), finely crushed
2 tsp vanilla bean paste/extract
3-4 tbsp strawberry jam (preferably smooth)
You’ll also need
Electric mixer
Compostable baking paper
6cm cookie cutter (fluted or plain)
2-3 large baking sheets lined with compostable baking paper
Useful to have
Piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm nozzle
Preparation
Heat the oven to 150°C fan/gas 3½. Put the softened butter and golden caster sugar in a large bowl, then beat with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla, flour, custard powder, a pinch of salt and just enough milk for the mixture to come together into a soft dough. Turn out the dough onto a large sheet of compostable baking paper and bring together with your hands. Put another sheet of baking paper on top, then roll out to an even thickness of 5mm. Put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up (see Make Ahead).
Put all the filling ingredients except the jam in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Cover and set aside until ready to use.
When the biscuit dough is firm, peel off one piece of baking paper, then lightly flour the cookie cutter and stamp out as many biscuits as you can. Put on prepared baking trays spaced 2cm apart and bake for 10-15 minutes until firm but still quite pale. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
Pipe or spread half the biscuits with a generous ring of filling, leaving a little hollow in the middle. Spoon some jam into the hollow, then sandwich together with the rest of the biscuits.