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.

This recipe was first published in 2015 and updated in 2022 with ingredients notes, step-by-step instructions, tips, frequently asked questions and new images. Enjoy.

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These custard creams are one of my household’s favourites biscuits. They are fun to make and a joy to eat. When my girls were very little they would always want to bake them with me in the school holidays.

We’ve been making these custard creams biscuits for over a decade. Back then my youngest daughter (aged 2) was always determined to do everything ‘all by myself.’ My older daughter (aged 5) would just about fall off her chair laughing at the huge mess created by these attempts at baking. Happy days.

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, though, that one biscuit is never enough. They are dangerously addictive.

What makes these biscuits so fantastic?

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 sneaky addition of jam!

What’s the difference between Custard Creams and Jammie Dodgers?

The custard creams biscuit is a sandwich biscuit originating in England around 1908. It is essentially two flat biscuit layers sandwiched together with a custard flavoured buttercream filling. Mass-produced custard creams have a distinctive Victorian baroque design with the words custard cream stamped onto them.

Jammie Dodgers are another hugely popular British sandwich biscuit. This time, however, 2 shortbread biscuits are 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 for the following reasons:

• I’ve never understood why Jammie Dodgers didn’t include a creamy centre alongside the jam – it was surely an oversight, right? In fact, let’s be totally honest, not adding cream to the original Jammie Dodger was more than a bit ridiculous
• Likewise, I’ve always missed a fruity burst of flavour in my custard creams

I like to think of my homemade Custard Creams recipe as the lovechild emanating from the marriage of the accomodating Custard Cream and the woefully incomplete Jammie Dodger.

But if you don’t concur with my view on these biccies, then you can, of course, keep your custard creams biscuits jam-free and I really won’t judge (much).

Ingredients notes

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 biscuit dough is rich in butter, giving a wonderful melt on the mouth texture to the final bake. Unless you need to substitute butter for dietary requirements, don’t be tempted to use baking spread or margarine, you’ll be disappointed.

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. This is readily available in UK supermarkets, but if you’re elsewhere in the world and can’t get it, then I’ve heard that vanilla flavoured pudding mix is a reasonable substitute.

I’ve gone all-out on the buttercream 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.

Step-by-step instructions

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.

1. Sieve the sugar, cornflour, plain flour, custard powder, salt and ground almonds into a large mixing bowl
2. Cut the butter into cubes, add to the dry ingredients and rub in using your fingertips, until the mixture looks like sand or breadcrumbs
3. Make a well in the centre and pour in a beaten egg
4. 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
5. Tip out and knead gently on the worktop until the dough is smooth. Split into 2 pieces, flatten them slightly, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes
6. 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
7. Leftover dough can be re-rolled for further cutting
8. 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
9. Preheat the oven and line a few baking sheets with baking parchment
10. 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
11. Put the butter and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl, then sieve the icing sugar and custard powder into the bowl
12. Using electric beaters, cream the ingredients together until smooth and well combined
13. Once the biscuits are cool, pair them up into tops and bottoms and divide the custard cream across the bottoms
14. Spread the cream out, using a blunt knife
15. (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
16. Add the top biscuit, pressing down lightly to sandwich the 2 halves together

Expert tips

• Use digital scales to measure your ingredients – the cup system is less accurate and I never recommend it for baking recipes
• Let the butter sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before using just to make it easier to rub into the dry ingredients
• 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
• If the dough gets too soft to be manageable when re-rolling, pop it back in the fridge to firm up again
• Use a variety of cutters – plain, embossed or cut out the centre to allow the jammy middles to be revealed
• Keep the worktop lightly floured when rolling out and keep dough on the move to stop it sticking to the worktop – rotate it after every roll of the pin
• Don’t rush the cooking – a slightly lower than normal temperature and a longer bake help ensure a deliciously crisp and crumbly biscuit texture

Frequently asked questions

Variations

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.

More tempting biscuits to bake

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.

Have you made this Custard Creams recipe? Let me know how you got along by leaving a comment or rating below. You can also show me your creation on Instagram by tagging me @jane_littlesugarsnaps.

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