Star Topped Jam Filled Biscuits
"Who doesn’t love a buttercream and jam filled vanilla biscuit?! If you want to make something without chocolate or the usual Christmas spice, then baking vanilla biscuits and sandwiching them together with a little buttercream and raspberry jam can be just as festive if adorned with stars and a sprinkle of caster sugar ‘snow’." Ingredients: • 175g butter • 200g caster sugar • 2 eggs • 1tsp vanilla extract
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400g plain flour 1tsp baking powder 75g butter 150g icing sugar Raspberry jam
Method: • Mix together the butter, caster sugar and vanilla until fluffy and pale. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then carefully mix in the flour and baking powder. The mixture should form a soft dough. • Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. • Preheat the oven to 170 fan (gas 5) and line 2 baking trays with baking parchment. • On a floured surface, roll out the dough so it is 1/2 cm thick (the dough is delicate so be careful). Using a 5cm (approx) cutter, cut out 12-15 round discs and transfer them to a baking tray. Then cut out 12-15 more round discs and from the centre of each circle, cut a star shape with a knife. Transfer these to the other baking tray. You may need to re-roll the pastry to cut out all your circles and the above numbers are estimates based on the cutter size (if you use a smaller cutter you may get more circles for example). Just keep re-rolling until all the dough has been used up. • Bake in the oven for 8-12 minutes until the biscuits are lightly golden in colour. • When the biscuits have been removed from the oven, take a little more caster sugar and generously sprinkle the biscuits with the sugar. The heat from the biscuits will melt the sugar enough to stick it to the biscuit. Leave the biscuits to cool. • Whilst the biscuits are cooling, make some buttercream icing by beating together the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. You can add a little vanilla extract if you wish. • To finish the biscuits, smear some of the buttercream on the base of the circle without the hole, then spread some raspberry jam on the top. Top with a star biscuit so that the jam peaks through the hole.
