Creamy Shortcake Sandwiches

I love the days when my children have friends over.  It gives me an excuse to bake and my children always love it when I'm experimenting with new recipes.  Quite often this is around early evening, so staying up a little late in order to wait for things to cool down for the taste test is a real treat.  

I had some double cream left over in the fridge from a meal a few days back and not liking waste, it had to be used.  The result is a beautiful creamy, but slightly crumbly biscuit base, layered together with a rich sweet icing filling.

Some tips before you start: 

Be careful when you cool them.  Loosen them on the sheet with a palette knife, but don't attempt to put them on a cooling rack - they'll crumble.  Wait until they're quite cool and be careful handling them.  Of course, if you have a couple of casualties like I did, there is usually somebody not too far away hoping this will happen so they can help get rid of the evidence!

I used double the ingredients listed here for the icing as I like them to be really full for the children.  What child doesn't love it when they bite into something and the filling oozes out the side?  If I was making these for adults, I'd keep the icing amounts stated in the recipe.

Creamy Shortcake Sandwiches

Biscuit
1 cup butter (softened)
1/3 cup double cream
2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar

Icing
1/4 cup butter, (softened)
3/4 cup sifted icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract

1.  Biscuits: Mix flour and butter together thoroughly (do not add sugar at this point).  Stir in the cream, mix well and chill in fridge for 1 hour.  The mix will seem like a stiff cake mix at this point.  Don't worry.  It will solidify slightly when it's chilled. 

2.  Preheat oven to 375F / 190C / Gas 5.

3.  Flour the surface really well, and your hands.  The dough is extremely sticky, but will form a lovely soft ball when you bring it together.  Roll it out to about 3mm thick, then cut into 1½" rounds.  (Or you could use hearts, stars etc).

4.  Put sugar on a piece of paper, then coat both sides of the biscuit in the sugar.  I used a palette knife to lift and flip them as they're incredibly pliable.  They won't stay perfectly round, so don't worry.

5.  Lay them on an ungreased baking sheet (no need to grease it as the ratio of butter in the mix will be enough to form a non-stick layer).  Prick with a fork and then bake for 7-9 minutes (shorten or lengthen the time if you have used a different sized cutter).  Leave to cool.

6.  Filling:  Blend all ingredients together and sandwich two biscuits together.