SUMMER HAS FINALLY landed and the Irish weather is – more or less – playing ball. After a long winter with most of us cooped up, it’s a welcome change. So, what better way to celebrate the long days and alfresco feasting than with these Summer cookies.
I’ve got you covered with these three recipes, they celebrate all those beautiful Summer flavours. Think berries, lemon and a throwback retro family favourite.
We can all relate to joining the BBQ queue for second servings and not being able to move afterwards but still craving something sweet. These gorgeous cookies are a much lighter way to wrap up proceedings and all three can be made well in advance, giving you plenty of time to find the missing gas canister for the bbq or sip on a cold glass of bubbles in the garden.
Whether enjoyed as a sweet treat after dinner, an afternoon coffee catch up or to get you through that 3 pm slump, these cookies will most definitely hit the spot. If you have little ones in the house, they’re also a great way to keep them busy over the Summer break.
Makes 10 sandwiches
Biscuits
225g soft butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 lemon zest
100g icing sugar
140g cornflour
40g custard powder
125g plain flour
pinch salt
Filling
200g soft butter
200g icing sugar
dash vanilla
20 raspberries
100g raspberry jam
Method
Preheat your oven to 170C and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
For the biscuits, in a mixing bowl, cream the butter, vanilla, lemon zest and icing sugar together until light, soft and creamy.
Sieve the flour, cornflour, custard powder and salt and add to the butter mixture. Mix.
Once combined, turn the mix out onto a floured work surface and divide into 20 and roll into balls.
Place 10 cookies on each tray and dip a fork into flour and press down the top of each biscuit to leave a fork mark.
At this point, you can chill the cookies for 10 minutes.
Once rested, place into the centre of a preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
Once baked remove and allow to cool completely.
As the cookies are cooling, you can make the raspberry buttercream filling. In a bowl add the butter, icing sugar and vanilla.
Cream for 5 minutes until soft and creamy, At this point add the fresh raspberries and mix well.
Pop this buttercream into a piping bag.
Assembly
Turn 10 biscuits upside down so the base is facing you and pipe on a circle of buttercream, leaving space in the middle.
Into this space, spoon in some raspberry jam and sandwich with the other biscuit.
Dust with icing sugar and enjoy
Makes 24
Cookies
170g butter
2 tbsp lemon zest
150g caster sugar
55g brown sugar
1 medium egg
dash vanilla
290g plain flour
1 tsp cornflour
1 tsp bread soda
pinch salt
Candied peel
2 lemons
100g caster sugar
200ml water
Lemon buttercream
170g butter
1 tbsp lemon zest
dash vanilla
200g icing sugar
Method
For the cookie batter, cream the butter, caster sugar, brown sugar and lemon zest until soft.
To this add the egg and vanilla. Mix until combined.
Once mixed, add the flour, cornflour, salt & bread soda. Mix.
Chilled the batter for two hours before baking.
For the candied lemon peel, using a peeler, peel the rind from the lemon and chop it into thin slices.
Add the water, sugar and chopped peel to a saucepan and bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes or until the peel is soft and not bitter.
Using a sieve, drain the rind from the syrup.
Pat the lemon peel dry using a kitchen cloth and sprinkle with caster sugar and set aside until needed. Ideally overnight.
To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan.
Turn the cookie dough onto a floured work surface and divide the dough into 24 balls.
Place these onto two lined trays and press down slightly and pop into the preheated oven and bake for 12-14 minutes or until lightly golden brown around the edges.
Once baked, allow to cool on the tray.
For the lemon buttercream, into a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients and mix until smooth and creamy.
To decorate, spoon some buttercream onto the cooled cookie and top with candied lemon peel.
Enjoy!
Video tutorial:
Makes 20-22 biscuits
Sweet pastry
125g butter
125g caster sugar
1 medium egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
250g plain flour
Coconut meringue
2 medium egg whites
110g caster sugar
Dash vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g desiccated coconut
1 drop red food colouring
150g strawberry jam
Method
Preheat your oven to 180C/160C fan.
For the biscuit base, in a mixing bowl cream the room temperature butter, sugar and vanilla together until creamy and pale.
Add the egg and mix.
Finally, add the flour & combine.
Wrap the dough and chill for one hour.
Once rested, on a floured surface roll the dough into a rectangle measuring 15”x 12”.
Cut out rectangle biscuits measuring 1.2” x 3.5”, you should get 20-22 biscuits.
Place them on two lined baking sheets and pop them into the oven.
Place a sweet into the centre of each cookie and place in a preheated oven and bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
When cooked, remove to cool slightly on the tray and then remove and pop onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For the coconut meringue, Place the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar into a clean dry bowl.
Bring a small pot of water to the boil and once it boils, turn it down to a gentle simmer.
Pace the bowl over the simmering water ensuring the water is not touching the bowl and using a hand mixer, whisk for 4-5 minutes until thick and glossy.
Add in the vanilla and the red food colouring and mix.
Pop the baby pink meringue into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle and pipe two lines of meringue on top of the cooled biscuit.
Sprinkle the top of the meringue with the coconut and finish with piping of strawberry jam down the centre.
Tuck in & enjoy!
Video tutorial:
Shane Smith has nearly 22 years of experience working in some of the world’s most celebrated pastry kitchens across the globe. Over these years he has received numerous awards from “Best Bakery Manager in Ireland” by Shelf life magazine to “The top 10 best pastry chefs in Ireland” by Food & Wine Magazine. Shane also has a regular cookery slot on RTÉ’s The Today Show. Check out more recipes on his Instagram or at www.chefshanesmith.ie.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say