According to Wikipedia, the Empire Biscuit originated in Scotland - and it's certainly popular there - but it's fair to say the biscuit, similar to Linzer biscuits from Linz in Austria, has its origins in Central Europe. While Linzer biscuits are made from flour that includes ground almonds or, in the case of Nigella's Christmassy Linzer cookies, hazelnuts, the Scottish version is a basic shortbread. Linzers are dusted with icing sugar and have a little cutout for the jam to show through, but Empire Biscuits are iced and have a cherry on top. Same same but different.
Despite these differences, the Scottish version was for a long time referred to as Linzer, German, or Deutsch Biscuits. Then, any reference to Germany or the Austro-Hungarian Empire was unpopular during World War I, so the biscuit was renamed the Empire Biscuit. In New Zealand it's known as the Belgian Biscuit and is usually iced pink. Go Figure. Whatever the source, Grant remembers his Scottish grandmother making them when he was a child.
To the recipe. This one comes from Ally Stoner - @rovinghaggis on Instagram. I won't pretend it's not a bit of a faff. The dough needs to rest in the fridge for a bit, and then there's the whole rolling out and cutting out thing. Finally, they need to be iced and the cherry placed (I almost said the cherry was popped 🤭) on top. I can't stand sticky fingers, so Grant cut the cherries in half for me. What am I like? If you don't like glace cherries (no judgement) you can use raspberries, blueberries or even those little raspberry lollies or gummy bears.
This is a soft dough so can be problematic to roll - especially when the butter gets warm. I find it easier to roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper, cut out the shapes, and carefully remove the excess dough from around them before sliding the paper onto the baking tray. You won't get as many biscuits on each tray, but they only take 10 minutes to bake, and seriously, it could take you that long to lift each biscuit (by now soft and melty) onto the tray while still keeping it in shape. Your call, of course.
As for equipment, you could make these by rubbing together the flour and butter, adding the sugar, vanilla and egg and mixing to a dough, but there's so much other palaver associated with this that I use the stand mixer with the paddle attachment to make life a tad easier. Again, no judgement.
A note on the icing sugar: Here in Australia, we have icing mixture and icing sugar. The difference between the two? Icing mixture has a little cornflour added to it to stop it from clumping up although here in Queensland, it still forms little lumps. It's the icing sugar you need for this, although the icing mixture is okay for the icing. Clear as mud? In any case, it needs sieving to ensure those pesky little lumps don't make it into the biscuit dough intact (even though Grant, who is such an expert, said it's one step too far 🙄). I use a mini food processor for this as I can't be faffed with the sifting palaver.
Alrighty, without further ado, here's the recipe.
Ingredients
225g plain flour
115g salted butter, room temperature
115g icing (confectioner's or powdered) sugar
Half tsp vanilla essence
1 egg, at room temperature
For the icing:
180g icing (confectioner's) sugar, sifted
Approx 2 tsp water, maybe more
Glacé cherries, halved
Cream butter and sugar together till lighter in colour, add the egg and mix well, scraping down the sides to ensure it all emulsifies. If it looks to be splitting, add a tablespoon of flour.
Add the vanilla essence and flour and mix until it is just brought together. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and and push together by hand. Form into a flattish circle, wrap in plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill out.
Preheat the oven to 180C fan (200C regular).
Remove the dough from the fridge and cut into two. Roll each piece between two sheets of baking paper to about 5mm, cut the biscuits (I used a crinkle-shaped cutter) into your desired shape, carefully remove the excess dough and slide the sheet with its cut-out biscuits onto a baking tray. The excess dough can be rerolled and cut to make more biscuits.
Bake 10-15 mins till slightly golden round the edges. Move to a rack to cool.
To make the icing, sift the icing into a bowl, then add the water a little at a time and mix until you have a thick, spreadable icing. (I use the small processor for this.)
When cool, spread half the biscuits on their bottom side with raspberry jam, then create sandwiches with the other biscuits. You can either carefully spread each biscuit with the icing or carefully dip it into the icing, twist it as you turn it over and leave it to settle. Pop half a glacé cherry on top of each one before the icing sets.
It looks like a lot of work Jo - and in the good old days that was fairly standard for biscuits. I think if I was going to put that much work into something I'd go down the vanilla slice route and get more bang for my buck. It's nice to do something for someone you love though - it gives you lots of brownie points :)
these biscuits are so pretty and so is the plate they sit on! Yes life is too short for sifting icing sugar so i usually don't even bother (depending on the recipe of course).
cheers
Sherry https://sherryspickings.blogspot.com/