How cute are these little Easter biscuits? Thin and crispy vanilla biscuits sandwiched with fruity jam and coated in biscuit crumb “grass” for a fun Spring vibe. Although there are a few steps to this recipe, the biscuits are well-worth the extra effort. Often Easter baking is chocolate-based, so these make a refreshing and fun alternative.
The biscuits are still fantastic without the crumb “grass” if you’re worried about food coloring or don’t want the extra effort. Simply go right ahead and sandwich the tops and bottoms with a generous blob of jam and skip right over the decorating step.
To get the best crispy texture from the biscuits, make sure not to overwork the dough and chill the cut-out shapes thoroughly before baking. This will help keep the biscuits short and crispy and help stop the shapes from spreading and losing definition as they bake.
Happy Easter!
Easter Jan Sandwich Biscuits
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Loading...Crisp vanilla Easter biscuits sandwiched with fruity jam and coated in "grass" made from biscuit off-cuts and royal icing.
Ingredients
- Biscuits
- 200g Unsalted Soft Butter
- 175g Caster Sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 1/2 Vanilla Pod- Seeds Scraped
- 150g Plain Flour- Sifted (plus extra for dusting)
- 1/2 tbsp of baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- Filling
- Your favourite jam fillings - about 1/2 of a 370g jar.
- Grassy Tops - Optional Decorating
- Biscuit off-cuts (from the main recipe)
- Green Gel Food Colouring
- Royal Icing - Optional Decorating
- 50g Pasteurised egg white
- 175g Sifted Icing Sugar
- Green Gel Food Colouring
Instructions
Biscuits
Beat the butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Scrape down the edges to make sure all the butter is mixed properly.
Mix in the beaten egg and vanilla seeds. Scrape down the sides again.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and add to the mixer. Mix in the dry ingredients on the lowest setting until fully incorporated.
Turn out onto cling film and wrap the dough, flattening it into a flat disk or rectangle. Chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge.
After one hour preheat your oven to 160C/325F.
Remove the dough from the fridge 5/10 mins before you want to roll it out. Dough that is too cold will be hard to roll because it will crack, dough that is too soft will stick to your surface and rolling pin.
Give the dough a very brief knead to form it into a cohesive ball. Flour your work surface and rolling pin and roll the dough between 5-3mm thick.
Cut circles out of all the dough using a 2.5 inch round cutter.
Take a mini shaped cutter such as a rabbit, chick etc and cut the centre out of half of the circles. You will be left with an even number of plain bottoms and cut-out centre tops.
Transfer the tops and bottoms to cookie sheets- making sure they're not too close together and chill for 15 minutes before baking to help retain the shapes and encourage a crisp texture.
At this stage, if you don't want to do the grass decoration you can re-roll the offcuts after chilling for 10 minutes in the freezer, and cut out more tops and bottoms. OR Re-roll the offcuts and cut out rough shapes. Set on a baking tray and chill. These will be turned into crumbs for the "grass" so it doesn't matter what shape they are.
Bake the biscuits for 10-15 minutes until very lightly golden. To tell if the biscuits are done gently slide one to the side. If it slides they are done.
Cool on a wire rack.
If you are decorating the cookies with the "grass" move onto the next step- if not pipe or spoon the jam onto each biscuit "bottom" and sandwich with the corresponding tops.
To Decorate
Bake the biscuit off-cuts and allow to cool.
Once cooled place the off-cuts in a food processor and pulse until it resembles fine breadcrumbs- transfer to a mixing bowl.
Wearing protective gloves rub green gel food dye into the crumbs until the desired level of colour is reached.
Set aside while you make the royal icing to stick the "grass" to the biscuits with.
Royal Icing
Whisk the egg white in a mixer that is 100% clean and free of any grease residue.
Once the egg white is foamy and increased in volume add the sifted icing sugar and mix very slowly to avoid an icing sugar cloud. Once incorporated increase the speed to medium-high.
Continmue mixing on med/high until the mixture is thick and glossy and forms stiff peaks.
Add food colouring to match the grass crumbs.
To Assemble
Pipe an outline of stiff royal icing using a 1.5/2 size round tip on each "top" biscuit. Go around the edge of the biscuit and the outline of the cut out shape in the centre.
Allow the outline to dry for around 10 minutes.
Thin the remaining royal icing to a flood consistency and flood each "top" biscuit that you just outlined - using a number 3 round icing tip.
Sprinkle the biscuits carefully with the grass crumbs so that the crumbs stick to the wet royal icing and allow to set.
When set- sandwich the decorated tops and the bottoms with jam.
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