“Tea biscuits” are those of your childhood, crumbly and “striped”, covered with chocolate, sprinkles or with cherries. The ones you bought in the pastry shop when you went as guests and the ones you were all happy if the guests brought to you. Why? They are delicious, and very, very versatile.
Why did we buy them in the pastry shop? Because even though the recipe is simple, it requires a fair amount of manual skill. But here at FoodMeTender we are not discouraged and here is the recipe step by step.
Ingredients
- 250 g soft butter (ointment)
- 190 g icing sugar
- 3 egg yolks (about 55 g)
- 50 g egg white (about 2 egg whites)
- 380 g 00 flour
- 25 g starch
- 25 g bitter cocoa
- seeds from a vanilla pod (optional)
- a pinch of salt
Decorations
- 70 gr dark chocolate
1 teaspoon seed oil
First the butter must be really soft, cut into cubes and left out of the fridge for 1 or 2 hours and must be soft enough for your finger to sink into and work like an ointment. When it has this consistency add the icing sugar, vanilla and pinch of salt and whip in the mixer or with the whisks until you get a smooth and frothy butter cream.
Add the eggs (yolks + egg whites) at room temperature and mix always in the mixer, or with the electric whisks, until they are completely absorbed into the mixture.
Add the 00 flour, previously sifted, and mix always with the electric whisk until the mixture is quite soft and smooth.
Divide the whipped shortcrust pastry obtained into 2 equal parts, about 420 g in each of the 2 bowls. Add the starch to one bowl and the cocoa to the other, both sifted. Starting from the light mixture, pour the dough and starch into the mixer and mix until it is absorbed into the mixture. Remove the light mixture and pour the other half of the mixture with the cocoa into the mixer and mix until the mixture is compact and smooth.
Take a cloth piping bag and a striped nozzle. Put a little dough at a time in the piping bag, otherwise it will be difficult to press (if you are having difficulty you can squeeze a little dough directly into the piping bag nozzle, biscuit after biscuit, but you will have to be patient). I drew the classic “S”.
Create the biscuits in various shapes, taking care not to make them too large and of equal proportion, so that they all have the same cooking time. Leave the biscuits slightly spaced apart, because they will swell a little during cooking. If possible, let the biscuits rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes before baking. Bake one tray at a time in a static oven preheated to 180°C for about 15 minutes or a little more, on the middle shelf. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Decorations
Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie or in the microwave. Add a teaspoon of seed oil and mix well. Dip the tips or half of the biscuit, depending on the shape, in the chocolate, let it drain slightly and let it harden on a baking sheet covered with baking paper (if it’s hot or you want to speed it up, leave it in the fridge for 20 minutes).
And here you are, beautiful, your TEA BISCUITS, to bring you back in a moment to the afternoons of the 80s and 90s, when they came to visit you for tea 🙂
Alternative decorations
Before cooking you can decorate them with candied cherries, jam, dried fruit, white sugar. Once cooked you can sprinkle them with icing sugar, or cover them with white chocolate and pistachio grains… have fun!
