If there’s one recipe that people always ask for from Granny, it’s her Empire Biscuit one! These little gems are so simple & so versatile. You can go all traditional and opt for a Glace Cherry or a Jelly Tot
Sometimes in baking though it’s the simpler recipes that make the most impact and with two little biscuits sandwiched with jam & topped with icing, it doesn’t get much easier than this! Best of all, more so than anything else about these little Empire Biscuits, is that the kids devour them. Easy and kid friendly = win, win in my books.
Ingredients
For the Biscuits
- 130 g Caster Sugar
- 250 g Butter
- 1 Egg
- 500 g Plain Flour
For the Decoration
- Strawberry or Raspberry Jam
- 200 g Icing Sugar
- Few teaspoons of boling water
- Glace Cherries/Gummy Sweeties/Icing Shapes
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 180°c (or 160°c for a fan assisted oven) and line a couple of baking trays with greaseproof paper.
- Cream your butter & sugar on a medium speed until light & fluffy.
- Add the egg and mix until combined then sift in the flour and mix to form a dough.
- Roll the dough on a floured surface to around 1cm thick. Using a round cutter, cut your biscuits & transfer to your baking tray.
- Bake for around 10 minutes until the edges of the biscuit are just golden.
- When still warm but cool enough to touch, add the jam to the under side of half your biscuits and pop the other half on top of these to sandwich together.
- When completely cool, make your icing by mixing icing sugar & gradually adding the boiling water until you're happy with the consistency - "gloopy" is a great way to describe it! Gently dip the top of your biscuits into the icing to cover and top with your decoration of choice!
Well not the best recipe.
Hi mark, I found the recipe far too buttery but got there in the end! Do you have an alternative?
My recipe is :
6oz plain flour
6oz butter
2oz icing sugar.
Metood :
Cream butter and sugar together then add flour to make soft dough. Add extra flour if its too soft to handle.
Cut out rounds fairly thickly then cook in med oven for 10 – 15 mins. When cooled, Sandwich together with jam and top with glace icing. Add colour and decorate as desired. Made these for years. Love them.
Oh no! Not too buttery at all!!
Agree. After 10 minutes at 160 then came out completely raw in the centre. I had to turn it up to 180 (with fan) and cook on for an other 10 minutes. I think the problem is that “Granny” doesn’t specify a cutter size and as we all know size does make a difference.
You are right, a larger cutter would require a little longer in the oven. I will update the recipe to specify this for those who may not realise.
The biscuits will however still be a little soft in the middle when you remove them from the oven and will harden as they start to cool. If they are still raw and not golden at the edges (as per recipe) I’d recommend leaving them in the oven for a little longer.
Amy
Completely raw?! That’s only happened to me when my old oven didnot work properly.
This recipe is perfect
I found the dough to be really crumbly, and in the end didn’t use the full amount of flour that was asked for. I too, found that 160 (fan assisted) wasn’t long enough and ended up doubling the time. The recipe doesn’t specify how many you will get, I got 10 biscuits though.
I’m not a baker so for me the recipe was simple with little ingredients so I’m happy with the way they turned out. My plan is to doorstep deliver to my family for Easter.
All shortbrrad dough is a little bit drier than most other doughs
That’s what makes it sooooo delish!
This is now my Every Time recipe.
Every time I make these biscuits with this recipe, they are perfect. I have tried several other recipes, most of them spread during cooking or fall to pieces when spreading, not with this recipe, it is perfect.
The shape and texture is perfect and the flavour is delicicious. I have to eat a couple as soon as I’ve made them because if I go back later to get some, they’re gone. They definitely don’t last long in this house.
Thank you Granny, I love baking with your recipes, they never fail to please.
Had to tweak these a little, used baking spread instead of butter and had to bake a lot longer than 10 mins, will put oven temp up to 180 next time, still a bit pale looking but lovely crunchy biscuits when finished, will definitely make them again
I always use stork margarine as then I get shortcake type biscuits and by the time they get sandwiched together with the jam and then iced they are far too sweet ( for me) if butter is used.
We use this recipe for schoolkids . Still delicious but not sickly. I keep the butter for traditional shortbread
All shortbrrad dough is a little bit drier than most other doughs
That’s what makes it sooooo delish!
Margarine is solidified oil . A completely different product to butter. It might look like butter but it’s not. Hence the end result is different.
Can I freeze these with the icing on? Thank you
You can freeze them but I wouldn’t.
Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all folks you really recognize what you’re speaking approximately!
Bookmarked. Kindly additionally visit my website =). We may have a hyperlink change agreement among us!
Really good! I found that refrigerating the dough over night gave it a much softer and snappier texture. I’m American, so I found it fun baking something from another culture!
Can I make the dough in the food processor?
I’m a 65year old British woman from a northern baking family. Never heard of them but will give them a try.
Made these today, needed longer in oven than stated. That aside they are delicious, although I didn’t need all the flour
I’m in Scotland, so these are a favourite
Audrey Jones
Hi Audrey – I’m planning on making these once I can my hands on plain flour. Can I ask how much flour you used for these?
Many thanks.
Debbie
I couldn’t say the exact amount, I had what was stated in recipe and added some at intervals until I had a soft pliable dough and know I had some left over. Sorry I can’t be more precise. I have made them a few times now and definitely less flour than stated.
Brilliant recipe thank you for sharing. Tried lots of different recipes but this is by far the best :)
Tried these and were lovely but found I needed to bake them for 25 mins.
I’ve now made these many times and shared the recipe as they are such a hit. I use the exact measurements and timings and I find they make a beautiful pale, soft and crumbly biscuit. Just as a German biscuit should be. I do rest the dough for half an hour in the fridge though, seems to make it a little easier to work with.
I made these to your exact recipe. They turned out brilliant. Family want me to make more, as they don’t last long in our house!!!
Love this recipe my only problem is the jam it oozes out the sides can you recommend he best jam ?
Didn’t work out, waisted so much ingredients. It was a big crumbly mess so I think recipe perhaps has too much flour.
Wasted *
This is the PERFECT recipe! I’ve used it multiple times now and they have turned out well every single time.
Thanks for sharing :)
Followed this recipe to the word apart from the flour I used 491 grams instead of 500 grams, they are perfect thank you granny
So pleased to find this recipe as my Granny used to make these. Followed the Recipe but found it didn’t need 500g of Flour!! However just added probably less than half that amount and the were perfect thank you
My four year old daughter loves making these biscuits. They even turn out like they’re supposed to which is rare when she bakes! Delicious and even taste better after a few days.
I used fine plain flour and stork but kept the the amount stated,turned out brilliant,I got 12 full biscuits with the cutter I had.
I make these all the time and have used many recipes. When I use this exact recipe I get the most positive comments from my guinea pigs.. eh I mean family! Thanks for sharing x
Perfect recipe for the Empire biscuits I remember from when I was a child. While it might seem too much flour when you first tip it in, if you keep working it eventually it will come together in a nice biscuit dough (I used a hand mixer and once it started to look a little clumpy, I used my hands to knead it into a ball). I used a 2 1/4″ cutter and cooked them for about 12mins 160 Fan which seemed to hit the mark nicely in my oven to give me the lovely soft, pale biscuit I was after. Thank you for the recipe!
Omg it’s too crumbly to roll! Help!!