Bakewell Tart Biscuits

Cream together the margarine and caster sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg yolk and almond extract and beat until combined. Sift over the flour and mix it all together with your (clean) hands until it is all combined and forms dough. Roll into a ball, wrap in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge. Ideally, it is best left overnight, but it can be used after 1-2 hours.

Dust a clean surface and the rolling pin with flour, and take the dough out of the fridge. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C, and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper. Tear off a small chunk of the dough and roll it out on the dusted surface to a 3mm thickness. The mixture will still be quite soft so it is easier to roll in chunks, and you will need to keep dusting the surface so that it does not stick. For the base biscuit, stamp out as many biscuits as you can, and carefully place them onto the baking tray with a few centimetres in between (you may need a spatula to lift them). For the top ‘border’ biscuits, stamp out a circle and use the smaller cutter to stamp another circle in the middle so that you are left with a border. These need handling more delicately so that they don’t lose their circle shape (however, they can easily be pushed back into shape before baking). Be sure to stamp out an equal number of full circle and border biscuits.

Place in the oven and bake for 15-18 minutes (full circles) and 8-10 minutes (borders), or until they turn pale gold and start to brown slightly at the edges. You have to be careful with biscuits as if they are in the oven for a minute too long, they will burn. Leave them to firm up for a few minutes on the tray, and then carefully transfer to a cooling rack. If you only have 1 baking tray, bake them in turns until they are all done.

Once they are all cooled, place the jam into a bowl and beat with a spoon until it is soft and loose. Place a teaspoon of jam on a full circle biscuit and spread it around with the back of the spoon, leaving a small border around the edge. Carefully place a border biscuit on top and sandwich together. Repeat until all the biscuits have been sandwiched together.

Place the icing sugar in a bowl and keep adding teaspoons of water until you get a thick runny consistency. Pour into a piping bag, seal the top and snip off the end. Drizzle zigzags over all the biscuits, or pour the icing over the jam in the centre and drop a few flaked almonds on top to decorate. This is best done on a cooling rack so that any excess icing can drip away. Leave the icing to set and then enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of Beckie Smith, Beesteas