A quick and easy custard biscuit recipe in South Africa: A complete guide
What is tea time without a sweet biscuit to dip into your coffee or tea? Tasty custard biscuits will hit the spot and make you want to break for tea time a few times a day.
Nikki Symons, owner and creative director of Sweet LionHeart, shared the common mistakes to avoid when making custard biscuits.
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Also known as custard cookies, these biscuits are simple to prepare and use essential ingredients you most likely have in your pantry. So, there is no need for an extra trip to the grocery store.
Tips from a professional baker
Nikki Symons - owner and creative director of Sweet LionHeart, an online bakery in Cape Town - shared with Briefly.co.za the common mistakes to avoid when making custard biscuits.
Custard biscuits are the epitome of South African childhood memories!
- Overmixing the dough: Overmixing can lead to tough and dense biscuits. Mix the ingredients until they just come together to prevent this from happening.
- Not chilling the dough: Chilling the dough before rolling and cutting out the biscuits helps them retain their shape and prevents spreading during baking. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before shaping.
- Incorrect baking time: Bake the biscuits until they are lightly golden around the edges. Overbaking can result in dry and crunchy biscuits while underbaking may leave them soft and doughy.
- Unevenly-sized biscuits: For uniform biscuits, ensure that you roll out the dough to an even thickness and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes of the same size.
Easy custard biscuit recipe in South Africa
Knowing different custard biscuit recipes makes cooking fun. You can add or eliminate some ingredients to create different flavours, crunchiness, or softness. Making biscuits at home also cuts the costs of buying snacks. Discover various custard cookie recipe in South Africa.
- Preparation time: 10 minutes
- Cooking time: 12 minutes
- Total time: 22 minutes
- To serve: 2 to 3 people
Custard cookies ingredients
- 1 cup icing sugar and additional for decorating
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 cup custard powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1½ cups cake flour
- 250 grams butter, room temperature
- Pinch of salt
Preparation method
- Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with wax paper or baking paper.
- In a bowl, crack two eggs and add vanilla essence.
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- Sift flour into a mixing bowl and add salt.
- In a separate bowl, add the butter and icing sugar.
- Cream the butter and the icing sugar using a wooden spoon.
- Next, add the beaten egg mixture to the creamed icing sugar and butter bowl.
- Mix well and then drop in the sifted flour.
- Mix it for a few seconds and then drop it in the custard powder.
- Stir well until all the ingredients are combined.
- Roll the dough lightly with your palms and place it on the lined baking tray.
- After that, press down lightly on the cookies using a fork.
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- Place the shaped custard cookies into the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes.
- Once the cookies are done, place them on a cooling rack.
- Gently sift over a bit of icing sugar on the cooled cookies.
- Serve with coffee or tea.
The custard finger biscuits recipe also follows the same procedure and ingredients.
What are the four types of biscuits?
For that perfect breakfast, serve biscuits with hot tea or coffee. Here are the different types of biscuits available for you.
1. Scones
These are sweet, wedge-shaped biscuits made with both cream and butter. Scones have a tender, heavy crumb and a slightly crusty brown top.
2. Rolled biscuits
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Rolled biscuits are among the most popular baking powder-leavened quick bread. During baking, the biscuit should rise twice its original height. The crust should be crispy and golden brown, while the interior should be light, tender and fluffy.
3. Shortcakes
As a base, shortcakes use scones or rich biscuits. They are split or served whole and topped with sweetened fruit, ice cream, or whipped cream.
4. Drop biscuits
Drop biscuits have more milk or liquid added to the dough than rolled biscuits, and the dough is moister and cannot be kneaded or rolled. These cookies rise less than other biscuits and are always coarser in texture and appearance.
What is the secret to fluffy biscuits?
Custard biscuits in South Africa are typical, and many people know how to make them. Here are six secrets to make you achieve nice, delicious fluffy biscuits.
- Measure your flour correctly. For best results, use a kitchen scale to measure the flour by weight.
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- Cold butter will not be fully absorbed by the flour, which results in small chunks visible in the dough. While in the oven, those pieces will melt, and the water in the butter will steam, causing the layers of flour to separate, creating flaky layers.
- Make them using your hand. It is crucial that the biscuit dough is made and worked gently. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer overworks the dough.
- Bake at a high temperature. A hot oven helps the butter to steam which helps the biscuits rise. If the oven temperature is too low, the butter will melt and not steam.
- Place them close together. Place the cookies together, touching the cookie sheet if you want them to be fluffy. This ensures that the edges are nicely formed.
Source: UGC
How can I get my biscuits to rise higher?
Here are a few tips to make sure that your biscuits rise higher.
- Use a food processor to help you distribute the dry ingredients evenly.
- Scatter the fat over the dry ingredients and pulse until the mixture looks like a coarse meal.
- Use cold fat and a hot over to produce full steam, encouraging the biscuits to rise as high as possible.
- Avoid adding liquids to the food processor. Stirring the milk into the dough by hand prevents over-mixing.
What is a custard cream biscuit made of?
Custard cream biscuits are mainly made of butter, custard powder, butter, and self-rising flour.
The custard biscuit recipe in South Africa is the easiest way to prepare these biscuits. The recipe included in this article will bring the family together. A tasty, soft, and crunchy biscuit reminds every person what home truly feels like.
READ ALSO: 7 easy scones recipes in South Africa: how to make them soft and fluffy?
Briefly.co.za shared easy scones recipes. Scones are a perfect snack, especially if you have them with hot drinks like tea for breakfast. Your first time might be easier than you think, and you will get better after several baking rounds.
Baking can turn out to be a great way of spending weekends and free time.
Source: Briefly News
