Custard Creams Biscuits with a Jammie Centre

This recipe for custard creams biscuits produces a bake that is buttery, crunchy, crumbly and has an authentic taste of custard about it. These biscuits come filled with a rich custard flavoured buttercream. Jam is optional, though highly recommended.

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This week I am sharing with you one of my household’s favourites - my recipe for custard creams. These are fun to make and a joy to eat. I made them last week with my 2 little girls during their half-term break. I love school holidays... and these biscuits.

Though not traditional, my custard creams biscuits do include a dab of jam in the centre. Trust me, it makes a great addition to these rich, melt in the mouth biscuits. I feel it's only fair to warn you that one biscuit is never enough though - they are dangerously addictive.

We first made these custard creams biscuits about 3 years ago, back in the days when my youngest daughter was determined to do everything ‘all by myself’ - even though she was only 2. My older daughter (then 5) would just about fall off her chair laughing at the huge mess created by these attempts.

Happy days.

What's the Difference Between Custard Creams & Jamie Dodgers?

The custard cream is a sandwich biscuit originating in England in the early 1900s. It is, essentially, two flat biscuit layers sandwiched together with a custard flavoured cream filling. Mass-produced custard creams have a distinctive baroque design with the words custard cream stamped onto them.

Jammie Dodgers are another hugely popular British sandwich biscuit. This time, however, 2 layers of shortbread biscuit is sandwiched together with raspberry jam.

Why do I mention both of these biscuits in this recipe for custard creams? Well, because I've taken the best of both worlds and combined the two.

• I've never understood why Jammie Dodgers didn't include a creamy centre alongside the jam - it was surely an oversight - yes?
• Likewise, I've always missed a fruity burst of flavour in my custard creams

I like to think of this version as the ultimate Jammie Dodger (let's be honest, not adding cream to the original Jammie Dodger was a bit ridiculous).

Of course, you can keep your custard creams biscuits jam-free if you are feeling traditional. I really won't judge.

Is homemade better?

Without a doubt, these homemade custard creams surpass the factory produced ones by miles. They really are:

• buttery
• crunchy
• crumbly

They also have an authentic taste of custard about them and a tempting hint of yellow in their appearance.

And let's not forget that jam!

What Ingredients do I need?

My recipe for custard creams is anything but traditional. I've used a variety of luxury ingredients to create a bake that is out of this world.

• This bake is rich in butter, giving a wonderful melt on the mouth texture to the final bake
• It also includes ground almonds to boost both flavour and structure
• Finally, unlike the traditional store-bought version, I've used custard powder to put the flavour directly into the biscuit dough and not just the creamy centre

Added to these ingredients are more typical items such as caster sugar, flour, cornflour and egg. The result is a cookie like no other.

Similarly, I've gone all-out on the cream centre too. Just 4 ingredients are involved - butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and custard powder. Again, it's butter-rich and all the better for it - just look at the quantity of butter compared to the sugar. It's not too sweet and gives you a second hit of that fantastic custard flavour. Just superb.

How to Make these Sandwich Cookies

A fine and crumbly textured biscuit such as these requires slightly more attention to detail compared to a typical cookie recipe. Follow my custard creams recipe carefully and your reward will be a generous pile of mouthwatering cookies to share.

Make the Biscuits

• Sieve the sugar, cornflour, plain flour, custard powder, salt and ground almonds into a large mixing bowl
• Cut the butter into cubes, add to the dry ingredients and rub in using your fingertips, until the mixture looks like sand or breadcrumbs.
• Make a well in the centre and pour in a beaten egg
• Using a blunt knife, pull it through the egg mix about 20 times, so that it starts to mix into the dry ingredients. Give the bowl a quarter turn and slash the knife another 20 times, then use your hands to gently bind the rest of the ingredients together into a ball
• Tip out and knead gently on the worktop until the dough is smooth. Flatten slightly, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about 5mm (¼ inch) thick. Cut out pairs of biscuits using cutters around 6-7cm/ 21/2 inch diameter
• Leftover dough can be re-rolled for further cutting
• If you are cutting out the centre of the biscuits, remember to do this on half of them only - the bottom of each pair should be whole, only the tops should have the cut-out
• Preheat the oven and line a few baking sheets with baking parchment
• Put the biscuits onto the prepared baking sheets, cover loosely with clingfilm and chill for 20 minutes, then bake for 20-25 minutes until the biscuits are beginning to brown

Top Tip: Don't be tempted to skip the chilling times. This dough is very soft and will be difficult to roll out if it is too warm. Likewise, the final chill helps ensure the biscuit keeps it's shape well in the oven.

Make the filling & Assemble the Biscuits:

• Put the butter and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl, then sieve the icing sugar and custard powder into the bowl
• Using electric beaters cream the ingredients together until smooth and well combined
• Once the biscuits are cool, pair them up into tops and bottoms and divide the custard cream across the bottoms
• Spread the cream out, using a blunt knife
• (Optional) Put a small blob of jam (about ⅓ tsp) into the centre of each biscuit, spreading out slightly, so that any of the top biscuits with a cut out will appear to be filled with jam
• Add the top biscuit, pressing down lightly to sandwich the 2 halves together

Can I Adapt these Homemade Custard Creams?

You can customise these biscuits as you see fit:

• keep them plain - just use a regular cookie cutter
• use a cookie press to add a pretty pattern
• or even bag yourself a custard cream stamp for that authentic look
• if you’re adding the jam, cut out the centres to reveal the middle

And of course, if using jam, you can vary the flavour. Though raspberry is a safe bet, blackcurrant (pictured here) is my top choice. Rhubarb would also be a good bet.

These custard creams are, without a doubt, my favourite biscuit. This is partly due to them being totally irresistible. However, I know that when my girls have grown up and left home, baking these will bring back memories of many happy afternoons spent in the kitchen with two giggly little girls making a whopping big mess.

Get tempted by More Cookie Recipes:

• Orange caramel linzer cookies
• Empire Biscuits (Imperial Cookies)
• Espresso, hazelnut & nutella thumbprint cookies
• Malted milk biscuits
• Ginger spiced rye biscuits
• Dark chocolate, pistachio & sea-salt biscuits

Have you made these sugared doughnuts? Please give it a rating or leave a comment - I love to hear how you get along with my creations.

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