Christmas Custard Cream Sandwich Cookies
Classic English Custard Creams are made with Bird’s Original Custard Powder,. You can sometimes find it in specialty stores, but you can easily order it on Amazon. I though it would be fun to make them red white and green and cut them into ornament shapes. I happened to have an ornament cookie cutter, but a plain round cutter will work great. If you are going the ornament route i went the extra mile and used edible silver paint to color the tops.
Filling:
For the filling I took inspiration from Stella Parks homemade oreo filling, using her method of browning the butter. This filling will firm up quickly so it is very important that you fill your cookies immerdiately after making the filling. It cannot be made ahead of time.
Coloring the dough:
I find that it is better to make to seperate batches of dough and add the color before adding the dry ingredients. It’s much easier to color the dough and you will also avoid over mixing the dough.
If you don’t want to make two sepertae doughs you can make a whole batch of dough by doubling the ingredients, dividing the dough and adding the color at the end. Although, it is much more difficult to properly mix in the color at this point.
Full Dough Recipe:
- 180 grams of All-Purpose Flour 1 ¼ Cups
- 40 grams of Bird’s Custard Powder
- ½ Teaspoon of Baking Powder
- 170 grams of Room Temperature, Unsalted Butter 12 Tablespoons
- 80 grams of Powdered Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste
- ¼ Teaspoon of Kosher Salt
- 1 Tablespoons of Whole MIlk
Embossing Rolling Pin:
It is very inmportant that you prepare your embossing rolling pin properly or you will have a huge mess on your hands. You can click the button below that will take you to a post that shoes you how i like to prepare the rolling pin.
Christmas Custard Cream Sandwich Cookies
Equipment
- 2 Half Sheet Pans
- Parchment Paper
- 1 Regular Rolling Pin
- 1 Embossing Rolling Pin
- 2 3/16" Dowels
- 2 1/8" Dowels
- Stand or Hand Mixer
Ingredients
Red Dough:
- 90 grams of All-Purpose Flour ¾ Cup
- 20 grams of Bird's Custard Powder
- ¼ Teaspoon of Baking Powder
- 85 grams of Room Temperature Unsalted Butter 6 Tablespoons
- 40 grams of Powdered Sugar
- ½ Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste
- ⅛ Teaspoon of Kosher Salt
- 1 ½ Teaspoons of Whole MIlk
- 2-3 Drops of Americolor Burgandy Gel Color
- 2-3 Drops of Americolor Red Gel Color
Green Dough:
- 90 grams of All Purpose Flour ¾ Cup
- 20 grams of Bird's Custard Powder
- ¼ Teaspoon of Baking Powder
- 85 grams of Room Temperature Unsalted Butter 6 Tablespoons
- 40 grams of Powdered Sugar
- ½ Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste
- ⅛ Teaspoon of Kosher Salt
- 1 ½ Teaspoons of Whole Milk
- 2-3 Drops of Americolor Green Gel Color
Filling:
- 84 grams of Unsalted Butter 6 Tablespoons 6 Tablespoons
- Pinch of Kosher Salt
- 180 grams of Powdered Sugar
Instructions
Dough:
- Sift together the flour, custard powder and baking powder. Set aside.
- In the bow of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Beat until smooth. 2-3 minutes
- Add the food coloring and miix until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and the milk and beat on low until the flour is incorporated and the mixture is smooth.
- Repeat.
- Preheat your oven to 350℉.
- Rolling the dough:
- Roll each batch of dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper to a width slightly narrower than your embossing rolling pin. and 3/16″ thick. I like to use plastic, metal or wooden guides to make sure that the dough is an even thickness all over. Place the 2 doughs on a sheetpan and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes.
- Remove the red dough from the refrigerator. Remove the top sheet of parchment paper. Flip the dough over and peel of the bottom piece of parchment.
- Cut the dough in half crosswise and place one piece on the parchment.
- Put the other piece back in the refrigerator until ready to use. Place 1/8" guides on either side of the dough and roll over with your prepared embossing rolling pin.
- Cut out as many cookies as you can and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the other piece of red dough.
- Repeat with the green dough.
- Reroll the scraps and cut out additional cookies.
- Place the tray of unbaked cookies in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Place the cookies directly on the rack and allow to cool completely.
Filling:
- Line up the red cookies on a sheet pan with the bottoms facing up.
- In a small saucepan melt the butter. Continue to heat the butter on low until it starts to make popping noises. Stir the butter while scraping the bottom of the pan until there is no more popping noises. Strain the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer, or a seperate bowl if using a hand mixer.
- Add the salt and powdered sugar and beat on medium speed for about 4-5 minutes until creamy and smooth.
- Immediately place in a pastry bag that has been fitted with an open star tip (Ateco 865).
- Holding the piping tip diectly over the cookie pipe a dollop of filling on each cookie. Top with a green cookie and gently press.
- Enjoy!
