Custard Creeeeaaammmm

I plumped for custard creams today as I was flicking through Jo Wheatley's book but having made them twice before using Nigella's recipe, I decided to go back to good old faithful never let's me down Nigella.

Behold the goldeny custardy goodness that is a custard cream

Makes about 20

For the biscuits:
175g plain flour
3 tbsp custard powder
1 tsp baking powder
50g unsalted butter
50g vegetable shortening
3 tbsp caster sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp milk (or more, to bind)

Preheat the oven to 180c
Mix flour, custard powder and baking powder in a food processor. Add the butter and shortening in smallish cubes and mix to a crumbly mixture. Add the sugar and mix again.

In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk, then add this to the processor and mix it until it clumps into a ball. You may not need all the liquid so go slowly, (or you can always add a little more flour, or more milk if it's too dry)
Form the dough into a ball, press it into a flat disc and wrap in clingfilm. Pop it in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Flour a clean surface, and roll out the ball to about 4mm thickness. Use a 4 / 5cm cutter and cut out as many as you can, putting them on a lined baking sheet as you go along, and re-rolling the scrap bits of dough until it's all used up.

Cook on lined baking sheets for 15 minutes, or until golden.

Cool on the sheet or on a rack 

For the custard cream:
1 tbsp custard powder
100g icing sugar
50g soft unsalted butter
1 tsp boiling water

Mix the custard powder and the icing sugar in the processor. Add the butter and mix until you get a smooth cream. Add the teaspoon of boiling water and combine again.

Sandwich each biscuit with the cream by gently spreading a layer of the cream on one underside then wiggle a matching biscuit on top of it.

Voila!