Food & Wine
Coffee cream biscuits
These little biscuits sandwiched together with delicious coffee cream are irresistible to those who have tasted them once! Filling and decorating the biscuits takes a while, but it can be a great way to keep grandkids occupied.
Makes: 40 filled biscuits
Ingredients:
- 125g butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tbsp instant coffee (for biscuit)
- 1 tbsp hot water
- About 2 cups standard (plain) flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp instant coffee (for filling)
- 2 tsp hot water
- 3 tbsp butter
- About 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
Method:
- Beat the soft (but not melted) butter with the sugar and egg in a bowl or food processor. Dissolve instant coffee in the hot water, and add, with the sifted flour and baking powder. Mix to form a dough, adding a little extra flour if it is too sticky to handle. Using your hands, roll the dough into a (thin) roll, 40cm long. Cut this into 2x20cm rolls, wrap each in plastic and chill in the freezer until firm enough to cut without flattening.
- Heat oven to 180C (170C fan bake), with the rack just below the middle. Line a baking tray with baking paper or a Teflon liner. Cut each log into about 40 slices with a sharp (serrated) knife. Place these slices on the prepared baking tray. (Bake the first tray-full while you slice the second log.)
- Bake for about 10 minutes or until very lightly browned. While biscuits are warm, lift them onto a cooling rack.
For the filling
- In the (unwashed) bowl or food processor, dissolve the instant coffee in the hot water, add remaining ingredients and mix to icing consistency.
- Put the filling into a plastic bag with the corner cut off, and pipe a blob on to the centre of one of each pair of biscuits (or spread filling onto biscuits with a knife). Do not ‘stick’ the biscuits together until you have used up all the filling as evenly as possible.
- Leave to firm on a rack before storing in an airtight container.
Variations: Add 1/4 cup of finely chopped walnuts to the dough. Reserve 2 teaspoons of beaten egg and paint a little on top of half the uncooked biscuits, then top with more finely chopped walnuts.
Hint: Carefully wrapped rolls of uncooked biscuit dough will keep in the freezer for up to a month.
Written by Alison and Simon Holst. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz. Image credit: Lindsay Keat/Stuff.co.nz.