Empire Biscuits
These classic sandwich cookies are as simple as two shortbread cookies sandwiched together with raspberry jam. Top it with a simple glaze and a glacé cherry and you've got yourself a delicious Empire Biscuit, perfect for your afternoon tea!
It's no secret that love a good sandwich cookie. I mean really, it's two cookies for the price of one! My Yo Yo Biscuits and Homemade Kingston Biscuits are up there with my favourite traditional sandwich cookies. And now I'm adding these Empire Biscuits to the list! If you're after a delicious and easy homemade sandwich cookie, then these three sandwich cookie recipes are for you!
What are Empire Biscuits?
Known around the world under many names, but traditionally Scottish, Empire Biscuits are two simple shortbread biscuits (cookies) sandwiched together with raspberry jam. The glaze is simply milk and icing sugar and they're decorated with either a glacé cherry or jube (fruit lolly/candy). The cookies originated in the UK as German Biscuits, but the name was changed to Empire Biscuits during WW1. Empire Biscuits also go by the name of Double Biscuits or Belgian Biscuits. No matter what you call them, they're simply a delicious and easy sandwich biscuit!
I was in Scotland in 2019 and ate almost every delicious fudge, every Traditional Shortbread and every Millionaire's Shortbread I could get my hands on. Imagine how devastated I was when my son returned from Scotland a few months later, asking me if I tried Empire Biscuits. No, I did not! So I went about creating my own and according to my son, my Empire Biscuits are every bit as good!
How to Make Perfect Sandwich Cookies
These sandwich cookies are super simple to make, with an easy shortbread biscuit that gets sandwiched together with jam. Seriously, it's nothing fancy, but they taste incredible! So here's my tips for making perfect Empire Biscuits:
- Cream the butter and sugar for a good 3 minutes -you want the mixture to be lovely, pale and fluffy
- Roll the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper -that means you won't be adding extra flour to the dough, plus it's much cleaner and easier to use
- Refrigerating the dough for 30 minutes before cutting means your dough is easier to handle and it will keep it's shape
- To guarantee even thickness of my cookies, I use an adjustable rolling pin. The guides are fantastic and my cookies are always perfectly uniform!
I hope you enjoy making these traditional and simple sandwich cookies. They're a fun and colourful baking project to get kids involved with (especially when it comes to the decorating!). I'm making it my mission to return to Scotland and devour every Empire Biscuit I can find! Until then, I'll be making this cookie recipe on a very regular basis!
Happy baking!
If you like Empire Biscuits, you're going to LOVE:
Traditional Christmas Shortbread
Empire Biscuits
Equipment
- 1 Adjustable rolling pin for easier rolling and perfect thickness
Ingredients
- 110 g Butter room temp
- 120 g Caster (superfine) sugar
- 250 g Plain flour
- 1 Egg room temp
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla
Icing and filling
- ¼-½ cup Raspberry jam warmed
- 200 g Pure icing sugar
- 1-2 tbs Warmed milk
- 10 Jubes or 5 Glace cherries (halved) to decorate
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160°C
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (3 minutes)
- Beat in egg and vanilla
- Add flour and mix until it comes together
- Turn onto a floured bench and knead until mixture is a smooth dough
- Roll mixture to approx 4mm or ⅐ inch thick. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes
- Use a 6½ cm round cookie cutter to cut biscuits, then place onto a lined tray. After cutting the cookies, you can stack the scraps and re-roll the dough to cut the remaining cookies. You may need to refrigerate again if the dough softens too much.
- Bake for 15 mins, then remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 mins, before moving them to a cooling rack
Assembly
- Once cooled, sandwich 2 cookies together with warmed raspberry jam -around ½-1 teaspoon for each sandwich cookie
- Mix the icing sugar and milk to form a thick glaze, then spread onto the top of each sandwich cookie
- Top with half a glaće cherry
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