Empire Biscuits

 

As the weather changes in the Fall I start getting melancholy for my life back in England.  I miss the “old world”, the charm of cobbled streets, watching canal boats float lazily thru the locks and of course afternoon tea.  One of my fondest memories was nibbling Empire Biscuits along with a lovely cup’a tea.  Today’s recipe takes me back to that time so long ago when I could walk thru Shakespeare’s town, and stroll thru the hedge maze at Hampton Court.  Enjoy!

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.  I recommend using a printed silicone baking mat with cookie circles on it.

Cream together:
1 cup softened Butter (two sticks of butter)
1/2 cup Sugar

then add:
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Egg

finally mix in:
1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Self Rising Flour

Strawberry Jam
Powdered Sugar (make a glaze out of ~ 2 cups and a bit of water)
Maraschino Cherries cut into fourths

The batter will be slightly sticky.  If you feel you can flour a surface, roll out the dough and cut circles – go for it!  I tend to flour a surface and roll the batter into the size of a long zucchini.  I then pinch off ~ tablespoon roll it into a ball and then carefully flatten it onto a cookie circle on my silicone mat.  They come out fairly uniform and you can tell from the picture they don’t look too bad!

Bake about 9-10 mins or until the edges begin to brown.  Once cool put a little strawberry jam on the “wrong” side of the cookie and then place a second cookie onto it so you’ve got a strawberry cookie sandwich.  With the back of a small spoon place a circle of glaze on the top of your cookie sandwich and top with a piece of cherry.

They are so delicious.  I need an intervention…