Vegan empire biscuits - these delicious Scottish cookies consist of two crisp, crumbly shortbread biscuits sandwiched with jam and topped with water icing and a glacé cherry.
They are easy to make and are perfect for afternoon tea or a sweet snack.
These pretty biscuits are simple to make but look very striking, they would be a great bake for kids to get involved in making!
They use mostly basic store-cupboard ingredients, with a few simple swaps to make them vegan friendly. Traditionally they would be made with butter, and occasionally egg, but the egg is not really necessary so all you need to do is swap the dairy butter for a vegan butter block and add a little vanilla extract to bolster the flavour.
What Are Empire Biscuits?:
Empire biscuits are two rounds of shortbread filled with jam and topped with white icing and half a glace cherry or a jelly tot style gummy sweet.
Although they are most popular in Scotland they are actually derived from Austrian Linzer biscuits and were originally called Deutsch biscuits or German biscuits. Following the outbreak of the first world war they were renamed with the more patriotic title of empire biscuits.
Depending on where you are they may also be known as double shortbread, Belgian biscuits or imperial cookies.
Ingredient Details:
Vegan block butter: Please, for the love of holy baking, use a block butter/margarine to make these cookies, not the spreadable kind in a tub.
Spreadable will likely make the dough too soft, and the biscuits may be more tough as it contains more water.
Caster sugar: Caster sugar is best for these as it dissolves easily, making the dough nice and smooth. Golden caster sugar will add a nice hint of caramel flavour. Granulated sugar will work if that is all you have.
Don't use brown sugar, coconut sugar, sweeteners or liquid sugars as that will affect the texture of the cookies. You will also need icing (powdered) sugar for the glaze.
Plain flour: Just regular plain (all-purpose) flour is best here. I haven't tried making these gluten-free.
Cornstarch: The addition of some cornflour (cornstarch) gives the shortbread a much nicer, melt-in-the-mouth texture. You can swap it for an equal weight of plain (all-purpose) flour if you don't have any.
Vanilla: Use a good quality vanilla extract for the best flavour. If you have it then vanilla bean paste would be amazing instead.
Glacé cherries: Also known as candied cherries, you can either use natural coloured ones or the bright red dyed cherries. You can also use jelly tot sweets instead (they are vegan friendly btw!).
Jam: Strawberry or raspberry would be most traditional but feel free to use whatever flavour you like.
How To Make Vegan Empire Biscuits:
(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)
Step 1: Cream together the softened butter, caster sugar and vanilla extract until well combined.
Step 2: Add the cornflour and the plain flour and mix to form a smooth dough. It may seem crumbly at first but keep mixing and it will come together.
Step 3: Roll the dough out on a floured surface to about 4mm thick. Use a fluted 6 cm round cookie cutter to cut out as many rounds as possible. Place them spaced apart on a couple of lined baking sheets.
Step 4: Bake for 25 minutes until pale golden then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool.
Step 5: Make the icing by gradually mixing water into the icing sugar until it reaches a thick but pourable consistency. Spread jam over the underside of half of the biscuits and icing over the top of the other half. Place a glace cherry on top of each icing covered half before it sets, then place the iced biscuits on top of the jam covered ones.
Top Tips:
All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
Do not overwork the dough as that will develop the gluten in the flour resulting in chewy biscuits. Just mix it until it is fully combined then use your hands to bring it together.
If the dough is too soft to roll out, wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate it for an hour to firm up.
Freezing the cookies before baking them helps to stop them from spreading in the oven.
Don't roll the dough out too thickly otherwise the biscuits won't be crisp enough. About 4mm thick is perfect.
A rolling pin with measuring rings is very helpful to ensure that you roll the dough out to exactly the right thickness. I have this one.
When the vegan empire biscuits are freshly assembled, they will have a crisp texture, the following day they will have soaked up some of the moisture from the jam and will be softer.
For a less sweet, more tangy flavour, replace the water in the icing with lemon juice.
FAQ's:
The wrapped dough will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days. Let it sit out at room temperature for about half an hour or so before rolling it out if it gets too firm.
The unbaked cookies can be frozen. Cut out the cookies and freeze them in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet. Once frozen, transfer them to a freezer-proof container. The cookies can be baked straight from the freezer, no need to defrost them first.
The unfilled vegan empire biscuits will keep for at least a week in an airtight container at room temperature. Once filled with jam, they are best eaten on the same day as they will absorb liquid from the jam and start to soften, but they will keep in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
More Vegan Sandwich Biscuits:
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Vegan Empire Biscuits
Ingredients
Biscuits:
- 200 g (7 oz) vegan block butter softened
- 80 g (6 ½Tablespoons) caster (superfine) sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 250 g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 50 g (½ cup) cornflour (cornstarch)
- pinch salt
To Assemble:
- 150 g (1 ¼ cups) icing (powdered) sugar
- raspberry or strawberry jam
- 22 glace cherry halves or jelly tot sweets
Instructions
- Line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl until smooth. Don't beat the mixture for too long, you don't want to incorporate too much air.
- Add the flour, cornflour and a pinch of salt and mix to form a smooth dough. It may seem crumbly at first but keep mixing and it will come together. If the dough seems very soft then you can add an extra 25g of flour.
- If the dough feels too soft to roll out, wrap it and chill it in the fridge for 30-60 minutes until it has firmed up a bit.
- Roll half of the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 4mm thick and use a fluted 6 cm/2 ½ in round cutter to cut out as many rounds as possible. Bring together the scraps and re-roll to cut out more cookies. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
- Use a palette knife to lift the biscuits and place them slightly spaced apart on the lined baking sheets; place them in the freezer for 15 minutes or in the fridge for 20. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160℃/140℃ fan/320℉/gas mark 3.
- Bake the biscuits for 25 minutes until pale golden. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for a minute or two then carefully transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
- To make the icing, gradually stir enough water or lemon juice into the icing sugar to form a thick but spreadable icing.
- Spread a small spoonful of the icing over the top of half of the biscuits and press half a glace cherry into the top of each one before the icing sets. Spread about ½ teaspoon of jam over the underside of the other half of the biscuits. Place the iced biscuits on top of the jam covered ones, pressing them down gently.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- All of my recipes are developed using grams, and as with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
- The recipe makes quite a few biscuits (about 22 assembled ones) but can easily be halved if you don't need that large a batch.
Gwilym
Can these be made with hot metal and methadrene?
Jarro Lightfeather
ok these are the prettiest biscuits i have ever made. for real. eternally grateful.
Jen
Great recipe. My biscuits turned out great.