Mary Berry Empire Biscuits Recipes

EMPIRE BISCUITS (CLASSIC SCOTTISH ICED COOKIES WITH RASPBERRY JAM)

Steps:

• Mix the butter and sugar together until it forms a homogenous mixture. Add the egg and mix well. Next add the flour until it forms a crumbly consistency.
• Turn onto a floured surface and form into a smooth dough. Do not overwork the dough. Roll out quite thinly (about 1/8") and cut into rounds with a cookie cutter.
• Place on lined baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes (I turn them once through baking). Put on cooling rack. Then, when completely cool, choose a mate for each cookie.
• Coat the tops with confectioner's sugar mixed with milk or water (to a thick, but runny consistency as in the photo below).
• Top with a piece of candied cherry in the center, then sandwich together cookies with raspberry jam and enjoy with a cup of tea!

EMPIRE BISCUITS

Steps:

• Measure out the flour, corn flour, icing sugar and butter and pop it all in a large mixing bowl. If your butter isn't soft enough it can be hard to melt so we normally pop ours in the microwave for a few seconds before chopping it up and adding it to our bowl.
• Using your hands mix everything together until it forms a nice ball of dough.
• Lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough out until it's about ¼ inch or just over 1/2 cm thick. To stop the dough sticking to the rolling pin we put a sheet of baking paper over the top.
• Using a round cookie cutter cut out 12 biscuits and place them on a lined baking tray. We used a 7/8mm cutter. Use a bigger/smaller one to get more/fewer biscuits.
• Pop the baking trays in the oven for 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven before they turn golden brown. Leave to cool.
• Lay your biscuits out and spread jam over the top of them. Get another one and sandwich it on top.
• Mix some icing sugar together with a tablespoon or so of water in a small bowl.
• Drizzle the icing over the top of your biscuits and then decorate with a glace cherry or whatever else you are using.

EMPIRE BISCUITS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Gradually stir in the flour until well blended. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into rounds using a cookie cutter.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Sandwich one teaspoon of jam between two cookies. Repeat with remaining cookies. In a medium bowl, gradually stir the milk into the confectioners' sugar until the icing is of a spreadable consistency. Spread on top of the sandwiched cookies. Top each cookie with half of a cherry while the icing is still wet.

EMPIRE BISCUITS

Steps:

• 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.

EMPIRE BISCUITS

Steps:

• Put the flour, butter, 85g of the icing sugar, the vanilla and egg yolks in a food processor and pulse in bursts until combined (alternatively, rub together the butter and flour with your fingertips and mix in the sugar, vanilla and egg yolks). Add ½ tbsp water if the mix feels a little dry. Tip the rough mixture onto a work surface and briefly knead until the dough has come together. Wrap and chill for 30 mins.
• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Lightly dust your work surface with flour and roll the dough out to around 3mm thick. Cut 24 rounds from the dough with a 7cm cutter. Bring the remaining scraps of pastry together and reroll to make more biscuits. Line up the discs of dough on the baking sheets, then bake for 10-12 mins or until lightly golden brown around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
• Mix the remaining icing sugar with 2-3 tsp of water to make a very thick icing. Spoon or pipe the icing over the top of half of the biscuits, leaving a border around the edge of each one. Top with a small piece of glacé cherry in the centre, then leave to set for 30 mins. Spread the jam over the un-iced biscuits and sandwich together with the iced halves. Will keep for two days in an airtight tin.