Empire biscuits
Empire biscuits are tasty Scottish shortbread-style biscuits, filled with jam and topped with icing and cherries. They are great for a teatime treat with a mug of tea.
Ingredients
- 250g/9oz butter, at room temperature
- 100²µ/3½´Ç³ú caster sugar
- 1 free-range egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 450g/1lb plain flour, plus extra for dusting
For the topping
- 250g/9oz icing sugar
- 3 tbsp full-fat milk (optional)
- Scottish raspberry jam, for spreading
- glacé cherries, halved, or sugared gem sweets
Method
Place the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and cream together until smooth and light in colour. Mix in the egg and vanilla extract. Sift in the flour in small batches and mix well until combined.
Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the dough to a 1cm/½in thickness. Use a round plain or fluted biscuit cutter to cut out the biscuits – the smaller the cutter, the more biscuits you will have, just make sure you cut out an even amount. Roll any offcuts of dough back together and cut out some more biscuits. Place the rounds on baking trays, leaving at least 3cm/½in space between biscuits as they will spread in the oven. Pop in the fridge for at least 1 hour to firm up.
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and bake for 10–15 minutes or until baked through but not bronzed. Leave to cool on a wire rack completely.
To make the topping, place the icing sugar in a bowl and gradually mix in the milk, if using, or a few tablespoons of water to make a thick glossy icing. Spread the icing on half of the biscuits and spread 1 tablespoon of jam on each of the remaining biscuits. Place the iced biscuits on top of the biscuits with jam. Top each biscuit with half a glacé cherry or a gem sweet.