The dough is a little tricky to work and tore quite easily when cutting out shapes but it really was worth the extra time and care. The bran in the biscuit gave a wonderful hearty crunch and complimented the creamy custard center perfectly. An utterly delightful biscuit, perfect for your morning cup of tea!
Apple Crumble Custard Creams
1 medium apple, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
2 tsp water
125g butter, softened
75g brown sugar
2 tbsp apple juice
150g self raising flour
110g plain flour
30g oatbran (I used wheat bran)
20g dessicated coconut
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp icing sugar
Custard Cream:
1 tbsp custard powder
1 tbsp caster sugar
125ml milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
125g cream cheese softened
Stew apple with the water in a small saucepan with the lid on until tender. Mash with a fork and leave to cool.
Beat butter, sugar and apple concentrate in a small bowl till creamy.
Stir in sifted flours, oatbran, stewed apple, coconut and cinnamon in two batches.
Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Roll dough between two sheets of baking paper till around 3mm thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Pre heat oven to 180C/160C fan assisted. Grease oven trays and line with parchment.
Using a cutter cut around 40 shapes from dough. Place shapes around 3cm apart on oven trays and bake for around 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
While the biscuits are in the oven, make the custard cream. Blend custard powder, sugar, extract and milk in a small pan; stir over a medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, cover surface with clingfilm and leave to cool. Beat the cream cheese until smooth then add custard mixture and beat til combined.
Sandwich cookies with custard cream and serve dusted with icing sugar.
