Melting moments

I've been as busy as an elf in the kitchen, baking up batches of cookies (often late into the night) as gifts. This christmas, I'm making 'melting moments', biscotti, and shortbread.

They are all so much fun to make, but melting moments were my favourite as I absolutely love the outcome of this recipe. It does not 'melt' as such, but is deceptively 'light' despite the amount of butter required. It tastes better after leaving it overnight in the fridge. Bossman rated it 9 out of 10 stars. I hadn't made the jam to go with it, but I think if I did, it would push it to 10 stars :p.

Here's a picture from the melting moments test run batch. 

The next day, little toddler gobbled one up in 2 seconds during afternoon tea.

Another batch, all wrapped up, and ready to go!

Melting moments by Julia Taylor (Original awesome recipe by Julia Taylor here)

Biscuits
180g unsalted butter
60g icing sugar, sifted
50g custard power
1 t baking powder
180g plain flour

Vanilla buttercream
100g butter, softened
2 t vanilla bean paste
1 cup icing sugar, sifted

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Line an oven tray with baking paper.
2. For biscuits, cream butter for 2 minutes with paddle attachment. Add icing sugar and custard powder and mix until combined. Sift the baking powder and flour together then add to the dough and mix well. Roll dough into approx 15g (1 teaspoon), place on baking tray and press each ball with a fork to leave an indent. Bake biscuits for 16-18 minutes or until light golden. Stand on tray 5 minutes to cool then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
3. For buttercream, whisk butter and vanilla until smooth. Add icing sugar and beat until mixture forms a paste, the consistency of thick icing. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle.
4. To assemble, pipe buttercream in a circle onto the base half of the biscuits. Gently press one of each biscuits together to form a melting moment.