Saturday 1 January 2011

A nice cup of tea and some custard creams for the New Year- or a quick present for Valentine's day

I love nothing more than to do some baking in my free time - and what is easier than to make some quick biscuits in the New Year ? They're also quite pretty to present as a quick present if you put them in a heart-shaped box for Valentine's day !
You can celebrate the New Year with a nice cup of tea and a self- made custard cream- just follow this simple recipe here below.
Enjoy the baking and the biscuits!!

Ingredients for the biscuits:
175 gr flour
100 gr butter
1 egg
3 table spoons sugar
3 table spoons custard powder
1 teaspon baking powder
1 or 2 tablespoons of milk

Ingredients for the custard cream to go between the biscuits :
100 gr icing sugar
50 gr soft butter
3 tablespoons custard powder


and


heart-shaped biscuit cutters


How to make the biscuits:
Put the flour, custard powder and baking powder in a bowl and mix thoroughly.Add the butter and mix the butter and flour-mixture with your hands till it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar and then the egg, and add some milk if necessary to make a dough.You have to play this a bit by ear, don't add to much, and if it becomes too wet, add a little bit more flour.
You are aiming for a dough that you can roll out without too much trouble.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Sprinkle some flour on your worktop, then roll out the dough with a floured-in  rolling-pin.
The thickness of the dough, when rolled out- should be about 5 mm.
Take your cookie cutter , and cut out as many heart-shapes as you can, roll up the remaining dought and roll out again up to the required 5 mm, then cut some more heart-shapes.
Put the heart-shapes on the paper-lined baking sheet.
It's now time for the cute decoration of the edge of the biscuits..
Get a wooden barbecue skewer or something similar with which you can prick tiny indentations along the edge of the biscuits .
Make tiny pinpricks all along the edge, then bake for 15 minutes, and let the biscuits cool on a rack.

Sieve the icing sugar and custard powder so it's lump-free, then add the soft butter and mix well - then taste your custard cream to see if it needs more custard powder to get the right custardy- taste.If in doubt, add more custard powder.
You will now need to assemble the custard creams.
Take one biscuit , put it with the side with the little holes or identations on the worktop,( so the "good " side is at the bottom)  take one teaspoon of custard-cream mixture, and put this on the biscuit. Spread the mixture a bit and put another biscuit on top of this.
Use up all the bisuits so they have another biscuit on top of them with some custard-cream in between- and you're done!
And don't eat them all at once!!
( Just a tip! )
If you would like to follow the adventures of Maud and Millie,


you can find the link here for their latest adventures

23 comments:

Donna@Conghaile Cottage said...

These look SO YUMMY! I will definitely be trying your recipe! I have been studying all the beautiful things in your photo at the top of your blog AND I love everything there, BUT two things I "LOVE,LOVE,LOVE", AND if you know who made them I would really like to know. The chicken teapot cozy AND the pottery covered cheese keeper with the sheep on it??? Oh My, I think they are BOTH SO Wonderful!!!
I'm your newest FOLLOWER... Happy New Year to you and yours,
Donna

Mariette VandenMunckhof-Vedder said...

Dearest Bea,

These hearts are SO wonderfully done. I've never seen any baked goods where custard powder is used. So these are a must try!
Thanks for sharing your many talents with us.

Enjoy your new year and as you show us; it got right to your heart!!!

Love,

Mariette's Back to Basics

The Tablescaper said...

These sound great, but do let us in the US know, what is custard powder?

- The Tablescaper

Modern Country Lady said...

Custard Powder is not actually custard which has been dried into a powder. It's mostly a starch that has been coloured yellow, sweetened and flavoured so that when hot milk is added the starch will make not only thicken the liquid, as a starch is bound to do anyway, but to give it the right colour, taste, and aroma for a custard-like sauce.

There are several name brands of Custard Powder, the most well-known one in the UK is "Bird's" .

(Copyright 2011 Practically Edible. All rights reserved and enforced.) Read more of this snippet here : http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/custardpowder#ixzz19u0nbLz7

Anonymous said...

These are beautiful biscuits and definitely look perfect to have with tea. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us.

Sawdust Girl said...

Those biscuits are so cute and look delicious.

La said...

These look delicious.

Millie and Maud are adorable. La

Johanna Gehrlein said...

Hello,
those cookies look so yummy. Thank you for the nice recipe.
Greetings, Johanna

Marty@A Stroll Thru Life said...

Oh my goodness, these sound so good. I really would love some. Beautiful tea also. Thanks so much for joining TTT. Hugs, Marty

Sandi@ Rose Chintz Cottage said...

Your biscuits are very pretty and they sound tempting too. Thank you for joining me for tea.

Blessings,
Sandi

Judith @ Lavender Cottage said...

Your heart shaped biscuits look perfect for Valentine's Day. Thanks for sharing, I'd like to try making them.

Amanda said...

These look super great. I'm always on the look-out for delicious new cookies to eat with my tea. Perfect since January is hot tea month. I'm your newest follower. If you have a minute check me out at Ninth Street Notions.

Carol at Serendipity said...

Lovely blog and the custard creams sound wonderful. I am not proficient enough in the metric system to translate this recipe. I will try to find another similar recipe. They would be perfect for Valentine's Day.

Carol

Chari at Happy To Design said...

Hello...

Oooh...your tea biscuits look and sound divine! I love that you fashioned them in heart shapes...sooo pretty! Yes, these pretty little tea cakes would make a lovely gift! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!

Warmest wishes,
Chari @Happy To Design

Beth said...

Your tea biscuits are just gorgeous and I'm sure delicious as well.
Beth

Unknown said...

Bea, these sound, look & will taste divine ... I can just tell. TY for sharing.

~ Pop over for our CSN Giveaway ~
Have a beautiful New Year.
TTFN ~
Marydon

Donnie said...

They really look yummy. Your photos were so sweet.

Snap said...

Yummmy! My mouth is watering! Cute furbabies!

Custom Comforts said...

These look really good and pretty too. Perfect for Valentine's Day.
Cindy

The Tablescaper said...

Perfect for Valentine's Day. Thanks for bringing your biscuits to Seasonal Sundays.

Still totally in love with your header!

- The Tablescaper

Becky said...

I never heard of these biscuits before and am very intrigued. Will look for custard powder so I can try them. Very Seasonal this weekend.

Becky

Lady Katherine said...

I never heard of saw the lovely biscuits either! Love them! Love you shared the recipe! I love to bake and hope by summer, I can bake up a storm of things! lol Loved you joined me for Tea Time!

Anonymous said...

Yum - I needed a new recipe, Im def going to try this out - home made biscuits are SO much better than bought :)