Easy Empire Biscuits

22 standard portions

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Ingredients

• 125 g Golden Caster Sugar
• 225 g Butter (softened)
• 1 Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 450 g Plain Flour
• 6 tbsp Raspberry Jam
• 200 g Icing Sugar (sifted)
• 12 Glace Cherries (halved)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°c (160 fan/ Gas 4/ 350F) and line two large baking sheets with non stick baking paper or parchment.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
4. Sift in the flour and mix together with a wooden spoon.
5. Use your hands to bring the dough together, kneading it in the bowl until you get a smooth biscuit dough. Take it out of the bowl and place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Form the dough into a large disc (about 3cm thick). Cut the dough disc in half with a knife and wrap each half in cling film. Chill the dough for 20 minutes in the fridge.Top Tip: If the dough seems a bit crumbly and dry, add a tablespoon of cold water and knead again. Continue until you get a smooth biscuit dough.
6. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut each half-disc of dough in half again to make 4 quarters of dough. Roll each piece of biscuit dough out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface (don't forget to flour the rolling pin too!). Keep turning the dough a quarter of a turn after each roll to prevent it from sticking to the worktop (add a little more flour if necessary). The dough needs to be rolled to a thickness of around 2.5mm.
7. Use a 5-6cm fluted biscuit cutter and stamp out as many biscuits as you can (you'll get roughly 44). Bring the offcuts of dough back together with your hands and re-roll until you have used all of the dough up. Carefully place the biscuits on a lined baking sheet (you'll need 2 large ones) using a palette knife. Bake in a preheated oven for 14-16 minutes until very lightly golden (dark golden and you've baked them too long!). Cool on a wire cooling rack.
8. Once the biscuits have cooled, spread the jam evenly over the underside of half of the biscuits (about half a teaspoon on each biscuit), before placing another biscuit on top. Gently press the biscuits together (some of the jam might ooze out but don't worry).
9. Make the white icing by adding recently boiled warm water to the sieved icing sugar, ½ tablespoon at a time, and mixing with a small whisk. You won't need much water, 2 tablespoons should give you a nice spreadable consistency. Spread the top of each biscuit with the white icing (I use a teaspoon to carefully spread it on, which helps prevent too many drips) and top with a halved glace cherry.