Thursday, September 24, 2009

Melting Moments


One of the biggest fans of my baking is my friend Ruth, who was very disappointed when I didn't bring anything in on Monday. When I asked her what she would like me to make, Ruth without hesitation suggested biscuits.

Hmmm - well, biscuits covers a huge spectrum, so I flicked through my books looking for a recipe that took my fancy. As Ruth is from New Zealand, I chose a recipe from one of my New Zealand books, Gran's Kitchen - Recipes from the Notebooks of Dulcie May Booker. I decided on Dulcie's Melting Moments, which was evidently an inspired choice, as I learned that Ruth loves shortbread.

I am not sure whether my biscuits turned out as they should have - I used teaspoonfuls of mixture for the biscuits and expected them to spread, when in fact they barely spread at all. Consequently, I flattened the tops a little with a spoon halfway through baking and ended up with dainty button-like biscuits. Maybe I should have used tablespoonsful of mixture, as Dulcie's biscuits looked much bigger. (Unfortunately, the recipe did not specify.)

Regardless, these biscuits tasted delicious! As mentioned above, they are a light, buttery shortbread, and I sandwiched the biscuits together with lemon curd flavoured icing. They were a hit with Ruth and Israel, which is all that counts.

To make your own melting moments, you will need:

1 tablespoon icing sugar
110g plain flour
115g softened butter

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Sift the icing sugar and flour together, then add the butter and stir to combine. (I found using my hands was the most effective.)

Spoon "small quantities" (teaspoonsful make button size cookies) onto a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silicone mat (and flatten slightly with the back of a spoon), and bake the biscuits for around 15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool on the trays.

To assemble, sandwich pairs of the biscuits together with your choice of icing. (I used water icing flavoured with a tablespoon of lemon curd.) Buttercream will not really work for these as it does not set hard; however, royal icing would probably work just as well as water icing.

The recipe does not make a big batch of biscuits; even with only teaspoonsful of mixture, I only made 22 biscuits (11 once assembled.) Accordingly, if you are feeding a crowd, you will need to multiply the mixture to suit.

11 comments:

Palidor said...

Wow, that's awesome! I can imagine how wonderful they tasted with lemon curd.

Anonymous said...

I love melting moments! Having made them for ages. Looking at your post, I am thinknig of maknig them this weekend. Thanks for a great recipe.

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

I love metling moments too! They're so simple but oh so good. I find it hard to stop at just one though... :P

Anonymous said...

I love shortbread too, and shortbread sandwiched with lemon curd sounds delicious!

adele said...

Shortbread with lemon curd? It doesn't get much better than that. And I finally have a digital scale, so I can bake in metric!

Cakelaw said...

Hi Palidor, I am a citrus fiend, so I loved the sharpness of the curd in the sweet icing.

Hi Ellie, hope you find my tips useful - the book has sweet recipes but is a little light on instructions in some cases.

LOL Lorraine - I know - this is why I give them away.

Hi Jill, the tangy curd contrasts nicely with the shortbread. Dulcie used passionfruit icing to the same effect.

Hi Adele, hooray for metric!

Jennifer said...

I bet these DID melt in your mouth...how delicious they look!

Miss High Heels said...

Without a doubt melting moments are my favourite biscuit of all time and yours look delicious!

The Blonde Duck said...

You can never go wrong with biscuits.

Emily said...

Mmm biscuits. I'm drooling. I want these biscuits.

Ivy said...

Cake, are you sure the analogy of the butter is correct? 1115 grams of butter for 11 biscuits? I am sure it should be 115. They sound delicious, especially with the lemon curd filling.