Vanilla biscuits
Fresh biscuits are such great things to have around the house and this basic biscuit recipe is the perfect recipe to get you going. The bottom of the recipe gives you a few ideas of how to make different flavours and style biscuits from the same recipe. They are so simple to make and from start to finish take about 25 minutes, then 15 or so minutes of baking and you are done. makes about 30 biscuits
What you need
125g butter at room temperature cubed
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 and 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup custard powder
The process
First put your shelf in the middle of the oven, heat to 210 Celsius and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
In a large bowl add the butter and the caster sugar. Beat with an electric beater for about 3 minutes until the mixture is pale and smooth and the sugar almost completely dissolved.
Now add the milk and vanilla essence and beat for another minute or so to combine well.
Now add the flour and custard powder and with a spatula or knife use a cutting motion while you rotate the bowl to combine all of the ingredients into a soft dough. Don’t be tempted to beat, your biscuits will come out tough you want all of the dry ingredients to be incorporated but not over mixed!
Now take teaspoon size portions and roll into balls in your palm, place them on the baking trays with about 5cm between each one. flatten lightly your finger and then press lightly with a fork. Now each biscuit is about 5cm in diameter and ready for the oven.
Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, checking to see that they are lightly golden. If they are very pale leave them for another 3 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to partially cool on the tray (10 minutes), then remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Thats that 30 beautiful morsels.
Variations: Nut biscuits, Mix 1/2 cup finely chopped pecan nuts or walnuts into the mixture before you add the flour and then place a nut on each biscuit before going into the oven.
Orange biscuits: Leave out the vanilla and add 2 teaspoons of orange rind to the mixture. You can make a simple lemon icing by combining 2 cups icing sugar with 20g soft butter and tablespoon orange juice and mixing it together. If you want lemon biscuits, do the same with lemon.
Cherry tops: cut a glace cherry into quarters and pop a piece on top of each one beofre going into the oven. Check the Cookie recipes section for more great cookie recipes.
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Just made these and they came out awesome..I put cherry preserve on some and blueberry jam on some…
I do feel they need a little more sugar though.
Hi Lids, fantastic, maybe sprinkle them with a bit of caster sugar straight after taking them out of the oven if you need a little extra sweetness. Have a lekker weekend. G
graham i just want to know what is the brown flour?.imake the margues they were burn on 100c
Hi asif, not sure what “brown flour” you are referring to, the recipe uses self raising flour. If your biscuits burn on 100Celsius I would check your oven temperature, 100 is very low. Cheers for now G
its a great recipe very yummm.my wife made these with love and its great keep it up
Please can you explain self raising flour?
Is it the plain flour with baking powder?
If we dont have self raising flour can we use baking powder with plain flour?
Hi Asif, Self raising flour can be made by adding 2 teaspoons of baking powder to every cup of all purpose flour. Sift it at least 4 or 5 times before using. You can also achieve the same result by using one teaspoon of cream of tartar and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to a cup of all purpose flour