We’re really excited to have a guest post from Emma Jane’s Bakery today. We reviewed her lovely button cookie stamps recently and invited her to share one of her yummy recipes. Here she is with these strawberry and cream dinosaur sandwich biscuits.
With our first baby on the way, my partner and I have done a lot of thinking about the kind of skill building activities we’ll want to do with our child (Little Button Diaries is a great source of inspiration for this!). As someone who loves to bake and cook, to the extent that I practically live in our kitchen, food (preparation and enjoyment) will naturally be a pivotal part of our child’s early education and play. There’s nothing quite like transforming ingredients into something really special to eat – and a natural tendency to take pride in creation is something that children and adults share.
One of my early memories is of making apple pie with my Mum when I was a toddler, I remember helping to assemble the pie and sitting impatiently in front of the oven door watching the pastry turn golden – and I’d love my baby’s childhood to be enriched with similar experiences. Earlier this year, my partner and I expanded my baking business to incorporate the design and production of cookie stamps – launching Emma Jane’s Bakery. With new designs in constant development, the T-Rex dino cookie stamp is one of my favourites so far.
This is a cookie stamp ‘friendly’ recipe for strawberries and cream sandwich biscuits – it’s important to choose your recipe carefully when using a cookie stamp, as any ingredients that cause a biscuit to spread or rise too much while baking will lose definition. The recipe also works brilliantly with intricately shaped cookie cutters.
These are vanilla sugar cookies with a smooth vanilla buttercream filling and jammy centre, great as a treat for birthday parties or special occasions – and a fun way to introduce your child to baking.
Makes 10 6.5cm round sandwich cookies
Ingredients:
For the sugar cookies:
- 100g butter (softened)
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 2tbs milk
- 275g plain flour
For the filling:
- 50g unsalted butter, softened
- 175g icing sugar
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 2tsp water
- 10tsp strawberry jam (1tsp per biscuit)
1) Line three baking trays with lightly oiled baking paper.
2) Cream the butter and sugar together.
3) In a separate bowl, whisk up the egg yolk a little – add the vanilla extract and milk. Gradually add the egg mixture to the butter and sugar, mixing well to combine.
4) Add the plain flour, mix well to form into a dough – this will work best if you start with a spoon and finish with your hands (so get messy).
5) Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll the dough out to a thickness of approximately 4-5mm. To help prevent sticking, dust the stamp with flour & tap the excess off. Stamp the dough, then cut out 20 biscuits and arrange them, evenly spaced, on the baking trays.
6) Transfer the baking trays to the fridge to chill for one hour.
7) Pre-heat the oven to 200C, (190C fan, gas mark 6), bake for 15-18 minutes, until just turning golden at the edges.
8) Arrange on a wire rack to cool.
9) To make the buttercream, first cream the butter in a bowl until very soft.
10) Gradually sift in the icing sugar, when the mixture becomes thick, start to add the vanilla extract and water, one teaspoon at a time.
11) When all of the icing sugar and liquid has been added and a good piping consistency achieved, spoon into a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle.
12) When the biscuits are completely cool, arrange them face-down and pipe a doughnut shape onto each biscuit.
13) Spoon a teaspoon of strawberry jam into the centre of each buttercream circle.
13) Sandwich together with the remaining 10 biscuits. Press down evenly across each cookie to encourage the filling to spread evenly.
Enjoy! You can find more cookie stamp recipes over on my blog: Cakes and Catwalks.
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Baker girl’s Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies
Our Christmas Pudding Pinata Cake
Chocolate & Ginger Truffles from Great British Chefs
Melting Snowman cookies from My Frugal Adventures 
Ferrero Rocher Brownies from Miss Renaissance
Gingerbread Roll Cake from Roxanas Home Baking
Our Chocolate Dipped Brandy Baskets
Handmade Charlotte’s Snowy Chocolate Pinecones
Christmas Mini Muffins from BBC Food
Little Button Diaries 