These sweet sandwiches are light and delicate. Two shortbread style biscuits with a “buttery” & tender crumb are sandwiched with a generous splodge of vibrant and naturally sweetened apricot jam. The gentle, floral hints from the elderflower couples perfectly with this stoned fruit. Each bite will feel like your eating rays of summer sunshine!
In less than 45 minutes you can be munching on these goodies. What’s more, the recipe calls for just 5 staple ingredients (if you can’t find elderflower the biscuit is perfect plain and you don’t have to make the dried fruit jam, keep life easy by using shop bought). The dough is so quick to knock up, it only needs to chill for a mere 15 minutes, the time your oven requires to preheat. And by the time you’ve made my speedy jam and washed up the biscuits will be cool.
This is a great recipe to make for children, as this recipe contains no-refined sugars. The kids will be delighted to be eating cookie sandwiches and you don’t have to worry about them getting hyper from sugar-loaded snacks. Why not get them involved in the baking since the recipe is so quick and simple to make. So, keep the family healthy and entertained during lockdown with these delicious, sunshine inspired confections!
(recipe makes 8 sandwich biscuits)
INGREDIENTS:
biscuit dough
- 50g vegan butter or margarine (I used Flora spread)
- 50g liquid sweetener (I used malt extract, but honey, agave, golden syrup, maple syrup etc will all work)
- 175g plain flour
- 5 drops of elderflower essence (if you can’t get hold of this then replace the 30ml of plant milk with 30ml of elderflower cordial)
- 30ml plant milk
speedy dried fruit jam
- 75g dried apricots
- 50g boiling water
- or simply use 100g shop bought jam (I like St Dalfour jams as they are sweetened only with fruit)
METHOD:
1. Place the butter, syrup and flour into a large bowl. Using your fingers, rub the ingredients together to create a bread crumb texture. Add the elderflower essence (or cordial) and plant milk and bring the mixture together into a ball of dough.
2. On a floured surface roll the dough to 1/2cm thick, using a 10cm circular cookie cutter chomp out 16 biscuits. You can re-roll the dough 1 or 2 time max, any more and the dough will start to get tough and chewy from too much manipulation. Use any shaped, mini cutter or the tip of a circular piping nozzle to chomp out the centre from half the biscuits.
3. Place the biscuits on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 175 degrees or 165 for fan ovens.
4. Bake the biscuits for 10-13 minutes, until they are just turning pale gold at the edges. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Whilst the biscuits cool, blitz the apricots and water into a thick puree. If you want a more intense elderflower taste add another 5 drops of elder essence or replace a tablespoon of the water with a tablespoon of cordial.
6. To assemble the sandwiches, spread a generous teaspoon of jam onto the bottom biscuits. Then squish the ringed biscuit on top so that this top biscuit sticks to the jam. Store the biscuits in an airtight container at room temperature for upto 3 days.
