Empire Biscuits
As Ian would say.... "YUMMO". Henry and Ian went to Glasgow in Scotland to do a book signing at Waterstones and discovered these wonderful vegan biscuits. They decided there and then that they had to make their own recipe and share them with the world. If you like a a homemade biscuit recipe with your tea, you'll love these! The recipe is in BISH BASH BOSH! which is on sale right now! Order a copy here.
Serves
Ingredients
For the recipe
<item-todo-done>6 tbsp raspberry jam<item-todo-done><item-todo-done>3 tbsp warm water<item-todo-done><item-todo-done>240g plant-based butter - at room temperature<item-todo-done><item-todo-done>120g caster sugar<item-todo-done><item-todo-done>1 ½ tsp vanilla extract<item-todo-done><item-todo-done>250g icing sugar<item-todo-done><item-todo-done>360g plain flour<item-todo-done>
Before you start
Preheat oven to 200°C | Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper | Clean work surface dusted liberally with flour | Rolling pin or clean, dry wine bottle | 6.5cm round biscuit cutter | Cooling rack
For the dough
- Put the dairy-free butter and caster sugar into a mixing bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon
- Sift the flour into the bowl
- Add 1 teaspoon of the vanilla extract and fold everything together until you have a nice soft dough
Cut out the biscuits
- Tip the dough on to the floured work surface and roll it out to 5mm thick
- Cut out as many biscuits as you can
- Collect the scraps and re-roll them to use up all the dough
- Arrange on the lined baking sheet
- Put the sheets in the oven and bake for 12–15 minutes, until the biscuits are turning golden in colour
- Take the sheets out of the oven
- Transfer the biscuits to a cooling rack and leave to cool to room temperature
Finish and serve
- Carefully spread 1⁄2 teaspoon raspberry jam on to half the biscuits
- Sandwich with the remaining biscuits, pressing down gently to glue them together
Make the icing
- Put the icing sugar, remaining vanilla extract and warm water into a small bowl and mix until you have a thick icing
- Spread an equal amount of icing over each biscuit
- Refrigerate for 10 minutes to firm up and serve
Alternative recipe
- If you would prefer to make shortbread fingers, follow the recipe for Empire Biscuits to make the dough
- Roll it out to 1cm thick, then cut into fingers 7cm long and 2.5cm wide
- Gather any scraps and re-roll to make more fingers
- Transfer to a lined baking sheet
- Gently prick each finger with a fork for decoration and sprinkle with a little caster sugar
- Put the baking sheet in the oven for 15–20 minutes, until the shortbread fingers are light golden brown
- Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack
- Leave to cool before serving