Whilst I’ve been off work recovering from last Friday’s knee surgery for the last couple of days, boredom is taking its’ toll. I can’t stand for long periods. I can’t drive, and can only walk very short distances. What I can do, though, is browse the internet for ideas from inspirational people. My friend Lynn over on Ink Sugar Spice, shared a delicious recipe recently for Pistachio and Mascarpone Cream Viennese Sandwiches. I have no pistachio paste, but I do have (and love) Nielsen Massey Coffee Extract, and as well all love coffee in this house, it was a done deal!
Digging out my old trusty Be-Ro recipe book that my mum bought me many, many years ago (it was my first ever cook book). I know that this recipe works as I’ve used it lots in the past. Just a tweak and a little twist was all it needed to produce these deliciously crumbly and delicately tasting biscuits.
Biscuits:
- 225g Butter at room temperature (it needs to be soft)
- 75g Icing sugar
- 2.5ml Ndali vanilla powder
- 2.5ml Douwe Egberts coffee
- 225g Self raising flour
Filling:
- 60g Philadelphia cheese
- 40g Butter
- 150g Icing sugar
- 2.5ml Nielsen Massey Coffee Extract
- Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Beat the butter and the icing sugar together for 3-4 minutes until light and airy.
- Grind the vanilla powder and coffee together until very fine.
- Add to the butter and icing sugar mix along with the flour.
- Stir until very well combined. This should produce a fairly stiff paste.
- Place a large star nozzle in a piping bag and place the biscuit mixture into the piping bag.
- Pipe an even number of circles of the biscuit mixture onto the parchment paper and place into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 160℃ (fan), 180℃ conventional.
- Place the baking tray into the oven for 15 minutes until the biscuits are pale in colour.
- Remove from the oven, but leave the biscuits on the trays to cool for 5 minutes.
- Transfer the biscuits to a cooling rack and leave until cold. (These biscuits are very ‘short’ and therefore quite delicate, so handle them gently).
- Beat the Philadelphia cheese, butter, icing sugar and coffee extract together until smooth.
- Transfer the filing mixture to a piping bag and pipe a circle on to half of the biscuits. Sandwich the other half of the biscuits together.
- These will keep for a couple of days in the fridge (store them there, due to the butter and Philadelphia), but allow them to come back to room temperature to improve the flavour and smooth texture of the filling.
Thanks to Lynn for giving me the inspiration to play with this old recipe and to give it a different little twist.
