Vanilla Sprinkle Melting Moments

I was inspired to make these simple vanilla sprinkle melting moments after eating some delicious biscuits made by The Flour Millers Wife. Em of The Flour Millers Wife is based in Manildra NSW and bakes delicious biscuits that are sold in a few stores across the Central West of NSW. 

I have been following Em on Instagram for a little while, and always thought the biscuits she makes look so good. I managed to find some when I was in Orange recently and they tasted as good as they looked! 

I especially enjoyed Em’s Sprinkle Yo-Yos, which are what gave me the inspiration to make these melting moments. I’m not sure exactly what the difference between melting moments and yo-yos are, or even if there is much of a difference. But since I have adapted my original melting moment recipe to make these, I haven’t altered the name. 

Biscuits by The Flour Millers Wife I bought in Orange - Two packets of honey jumbles, white chocolate and cranberry biscuits and the Sprinkle Yo-Yo Biscuits.

My version are very different from Em’s which are much smaller and have a softer crumblier style biscuit, but I think that’s the joy of finding inspiration in what other people bake. It’s not about replicating it exactly, but using it as inspiration to create a new recipe. 

And this way I can enjoy my own melting moments, and still look forward to having some of The Flour Miller’s Wife’s creation next time I am in the Central West! Thank you for the inspiration Em! And keep any eye out for her biscuits if you are around Orange, Molong or Carcoar - and in the mean time, have a go at the recipe below!

Vanilla Sprinkle Melting Moments

Ingredients:                                       

300g unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g icing sugar/mixture

420g plain flour

50g custard powder

Ingredients for the filling:

80g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar/mixture

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Sprinkles/100s and 1000s, to decorate

Method: 

Preheat oven to 145 degrees Celsius, and line three large baking trays with baking paper. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and vanillas until creamy.

Add the flour and custard powder to the creamed butter, and mix on the lowest speed until a dough forms. 

Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the prepared trays (you should end up with 40-44 individual dough balls/biscuits) leaving a little space in between each (they won’t spread much when baking). Then lightly press down each ball with the back of a fork so they flatten out a little. Dip your fork in flour if it is sticking to the dough.

Bake for 25 minutes. They will be cooked when the undersides of the biscuits are lightly golden. To ensure a even bake, rotate the baking trays in the oven around half way through. 

Allow to cool on their trays.

Once the biscuits have cooled make the filling by beating all the ingredients except the sprinkles in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment or by using a hand held mixer. Mix until light and fluffy and everything is well combined. 

Pair up the cooked biscuits, and turn one from each pair over so the underside is facing up. Spread or pipe the filling on to the underside of one biscuit in each biscuit pair, then gently sandwich the paired biscuits together. 

Pour some sprinkles into a bowl and dip the edges of each sandwiched biscuit into it, pushing the sprinkles into the sides of the filling.

Leave the biscuits for half an hour or so for the filling to firm up a bit (you can do this in the fridge in warmer weather). Biscuits will store well in an airtight container for a few days. 

Makes 40-44 individual biscuits and 20-22 sandwiched biscuits. 

Funfetti Cookie Slice

I’m not usually one for adding food colouring or large amounts of sprinkles to my baked goods, but I think I’m at that point in lockdown where any pop of colour adds a tiny bit of joy to my day. 

As does using up an already opened packet of Jimmies (large sprinkles) and some chocolate no one seemed to be eating. With delivery windows in Sydney few and far between from our major supermarkets at the moment, using up things I already have seemed like a good way to go. So there were a couple of motivations for making this recipe, beyond my usual ‘I’d like something nice to eat but don’t want it to take ages to make’. 

You can leave out the sprinkles if you wish, and use any type of chocolate you want. The sprinkles don’t add any flavour, it’s just for the fun colours. However if you do use some sprinkles, those called Jimmies which are bigger sprinkles than the ones us Aussies are used to buying at supermarket, will work best as their colours won’t bleed through your bake. 

Funfetti Cookie Slice

Ingredients:

120g butter, melted

200g caster sugar 

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 egg

290g self raising flour

3.5 tbsp large sprinkles (aka. Jimmies) 

120g choc chips (white, Caramilk, milk or dark) or roughly chopped chocolate

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a 30 x 20cm brownie or Lamington tin with baking paper. 

In a large bowl whisk together the butter, sugar, golden syrup, vanilla and egg.

Then add the flour and the sprinkles and mix to combine with a wooden spoon.

Tip the dough into the prepared tray, and spread it out, pushing it into the sides. Scatter the chopped chocolate/choc chips over the dough, pushing them in a little.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. 

Allow to cool completely in the tin. The remove and cut into slices or chunks of your choice.

Serves 15. 

Peggy Porschen London + How to Make Peggy Porschen Style Easter Biscuits

I made these biscuits over Easter, hence the Easter egg and bunny shapes. But they would be lovely in any shape you would like! The book the recipe is from ‘Cookies’ by Peggy Porschen, has many wonderfully suggestions on what shapes to use and how to decorate the biscuits. Most of the biscuits are intricate and probably require a bit more skill and patience than I am will to provide, so I decided to use sprinkles to decorate the biscuits (and hide any evidence of poor piping skills!). 

I came across Peggy Porschen, her cookies, shop and books, via Sweet Bake Shop, who now has her own store in Canada. Peggy is based in London, and when I was there just over a year ago, Mum and I walked all the way to Belgravia to go to her shop. 

Peggy Porschen's Parlour - 116 Edbury St Belgravia, London.

I think we both agreed the walk was worth it. The shop was very cute, the cakes were lovely and the tea was good too. The areas of Chelsea and Belgravia are also quite nice to have walk around in as well. We ate cupcakes and sipped on tea, on some outside seats in the cold, but thoroughly enjoyed the experience! 

I walked away with one of Peggy’s iced biscuits, a biscuit cutter and a copy of her ‘Cupcakes’ book. This ‘Cookies’ book came out later, as was given to me for my birthday last year. There are lots of hints and tips in the book about making the biscuits and icing them, and gives step by step instructions on how to do all of it. I used the vanilla biscuit recipe, and learnt that for such ‘sugar cookies’, you should chill the cut biscuits on their trays before baking for at least 30 minutes to ensure they don’t spread in the oven. 

Tea and cake at Peggy Porschen, London.

I kept the icing for these biscuits white, as I wanted to decorate them with sprinkles. If you want to add colour, add it at the first stage of the icing, before you add more water to create soft peak icing for piping the edges or flooding icing to fill the biscuits. Add a small amount of colour to the mixture, and gently mix together with a palette knife. If you want multiple colours for the biscuits, you will have to divide the royal icing up at the first stage, and add the colours separately, and continue on with the following stages for each colour. Keep a bit of the white royal icing to the side (covered with a damp cloth), so you can adjust the shades of the icing colours. 

I served these biscuits with simple flavoured milks, but now that the weather has got chillier, they would probably be best with a nice hot chocolate! 

Ingredients for the Biscuits: 

200 g unsalted butter, softened

200 g caster sugar

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste 

pinch of salt

1 egg, lightly beaten 

400 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 

Method: 

Line 3 baking trays with baking paper. 

Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt in a large bowl until combined. Beat the egg in a glass or jug, and add slowly to the butter mixture. Mix until well incorporated. Sift in the flour and mix until just combined. Pull the dough together, and wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. Roll the dough out, until it’s about 4-5mm thick. 

Cut out shapes with biscuit cutters, and place on the prepared trays. Once all the dough has been used, place the trays in the fridge so the dough can chill for a further 30 minutes before going into the oven. 

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius. 

Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes, or until they are slightly golden around the edges and spring back when lightly touched. You may need to rotate the trays in the oven to evenly bake all the biscuits. 

Place on a wire rack to cool. 

Ingredients for the Icing: 

500 g icing sugar, sifted

small squeeze of lemon juice 

2 egg whites 

sprinkles to decorate

Method: 

In a large clean bowl of an electric mixed, place the icing sugar, lemon juice and three-quarters of the egg whites. 

Mix on the lowest speed until the ingredients are well combined. If the mixture is too dry add more egg white. The mixture should be smooth but not wet. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after a couple of minutes, to ensure all the ingredients mix together properly. If the mixture is too runny, add a little more sifted icing sugar. 

Continue to mix on the lowest speed for 4-5 minutes, ensuring the mixture doesn’t become too aerated. The mixture will be ready when stiff peaks form around the edges of the bowl, and has a smooth satiny texture. 

To get the icing to a pipe-able consistency, run a palette knife under water and use to mix the icing. The icing should become glossier and the peaks should be softer. 

Place some of the royal icing in a piping bag, with either a small nozzle or a small cut at the end. Cover the remaining royal icing with a damp cloth so it doesn’t dry out. 

Draw an outline around the edge of each biscuit shape with the icing in the piping bag. 

Now the remaining royal icing needs to be made into ‘flooding’ icing. Add a little water to the mixture, and mix with a spatula. The icing will flow, become shiny and flatten out within a few seconds after it has been mixed (i.e. it will no longer ‘hold its peak’ in any way). Tap the bowl on a bench or table to remove any air bubbles, then fill another piping bag with the icing. This piping bag should have a slightly bigger nozzle, or a slightly larger hole cut at the end. 

If decorating with sprinkles, have a shallow bowl filled with the sprinkles ready, so you can dip the biscuits into it while the icing is still wet.

Flood each biscuit with the icing, keeping within the border you have already piped. Don’t over fill the bordered area of the biscuit with flooding icing or it may run over the piped outline. You may need to use a small palette knife or cocktail stick to push the icing in to small corners of the biscuit. Dip the biscuits (icing side down) in to the sprinkles.

Leave to dry for a few hours (or overnight), or until the icing has dried hard. 

Original recipes from ‘Cookies’ by Peggy Porschen (Quadrille Publishing, 2014), pp.8 & 56-60.