These are a new favourite of mine and a slight variation on the Orange & Honeycomb biscuits I posted in the past. It dawned on me that by changing a couple of ingredients, the result could be completely different. This time, I decided to ditch the honeycomb bar altogether and opt, instead, for the zing of lemon and the comforting sweetness and creaminess of white chocolate. The result is a very tangy and moreish biscuit which slightly resembles amaretti.
Ingredients (for the biscuits)
- 250g self-raising flour
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 50g golden caster sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 115g unsalted butter, diced
- 115g honey
- 3 tbsp white chocolate shavings
Ingredients (for the filling)
- 50g unsalted butter
- 115g icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp white chocolate shavings
Method
- Line three baking sheets with baking parchment and set aside.
- Put the white chocolate bar in the freezer to firm up before creating the chocolate shavings.
- In a big bowl, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and lemon zest. Add the diced unsalted butter and rub it in until you get a breadcrumb-like consistency.
- Now add the honey and mix that in. (To make things easier, I put my bowl on the scales and weighed the honey as I was adding it, then mixed it in with a rubber spatula. You need however to give it a final mix with your hands.)
- Using a teaspoon, measure out equal amounts of the dough, then roll it up between your hands and put it on the lined baking sheet, pressing gently with your hands to flatten it down. Create alternate rows as the biscuits will expand as they cook. Use all of your mixture, then refrigerate the biscuits for at least half an hour before baking.
- In the meantime, take the white chocolate out of the freezer and use a potato peeler to create the necessary amount of chocolate shavings. Put them in a bowl, then refrigerate them until needed.
- When the biscuits only need a couple of minutes more in the fridge, pre-heat your oven to 190C.
- Bake the biscuits for about 10 minutes, by which time they will have turned a nice golden brown. Make sure to rotate the baking sheet halfway through baking.
- After 10 minutes, remove from the oven one sheet at a time and sprinkle the white chocolate shavings on half of the biscuits in each batch using a teaspoon. Return to the oven for another 3 minutes, then remove and leave to cool on wire racks. Repeat with all of the baking sheets you have.
- While the biscuits are cooling, make your filling. In the bowl of a freestanding mixer (or in a bowl), mix the butter with the icing sugar, then add the juice and increase the speed to high to make the filling nice and fluffy. Transfer to a piping bag.
- When the biscuits have cooled down, take the halves without the white chocolate shavings on top and pipe a dollop of the icing on them, then sandwich them with one of the iced halves. Repeat with the rest of the biscuits.
Note
- You can put the sandwiched biscuits in the fridge to firm up the filling before eating, but make sure you serve them at room temperature.
Baking with Attitude 