Orange Cream Biscuits | Christmas Baking

So how are preparations going on for Christmas,have you soaked the fruits for the fruit cake?Have you decided what you're adding to the home-baked goodie boxes to gift or like me,are you still wondering where to start.I hope at least some of you are like me and yet to decide on the course of action for the upcoming festival season,it'll make me a bit relieved.

Christmas for us is indeed a festival of joy.Though we don't celebrate it in its full splendour,things like hanging the star up and baking a fruit cake and gifting goodie boxes of baked stuff among friends has become a small tradition of sorts.Just like Diwali.

This year somehow,everything is in slow motion.I am still chopping up fruits and nuts for the fruit cake,now got to soak and then bake.The blog has never seen so much of silence as it has in the last couple of months.Every post I seem to promise I'll come back with a bang but it doesn't seem to happen.

To cheer up the blog as well as my blog readers who never fail to visit the blog and leave comments,I decided to bake one of my favoritest-est biscuits-Orange Cream biscuit.I can finish up a packet of cream biscuits(only Orange)in record time and for the same reason,rarely stock it up.So when I saw the recipe for the same,it excited me.Never in my dreams I thought I could whip up cream biscuits from scratch..so hey never say never again..:)

The recipe is very similar to Yo-Yo biscuits,but this one uses egg yolk for added richness.Folks like me who worry about the eggy smell,let me assure you there is none.Flavorful Orange Zest completely takes over and you can taste only Orange flavor in this and nothing else.

Orange Cream Biscuits

Ingredients(makes 14-16 pairs)

Butter - 100 gms,at room temperature
Caster Sugar - 100 gms
Golden syrup - 2 tbsp
Orange zest - of one Orange
Egg yolk - 1
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Custard powder - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Cream of tartar - 1/2 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

For the filling/cream

Butter - 40 gms
Icing sugar - 2/3 cup/75 gms
Juice and Zest of one Orange
A pinch of Orange food colouring(optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 160C.Grease and line a cookie tray.
 
Sift together flour,custard powder,salt,cream of tartar and baking soda.
 
Cream butter,sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy.
 
Mix in the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat well.Work the sifted flour mix into the creamed butter mixture and mix till you get a smooth dough.(I started mixing with a wooden spoon and then kneaded with hands)
 
Roll into balls the size of a small walnut and put onto the baking sheets allowing room for spreading.Dip a fork into some flour and make small markings on top of the cookies.Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the cookies turn golden brown.Remove carefully to a wire rack and let it cool completely.
 
For the cream filling-cream together the butter,sugar and orange zest.Mix in enough orange juice to give a thick spreading consistency.Add a ppinch of orange food colour.
 
Use the orange cream filling to sandwich the cookies together.

Recipe source - Cakes & Cake Decoration by Rosemary Wadey