Empire biscuits | Easy Scottish recipe | Cooking with my kids (2024)

Empire biscuits are a delicious melt in your mouth biscuit popular in Scotland. Simply sandwich two shortbread biscuits together with jam and decorate with icing and a glace cherry or sweetie on top.

Empire biscuits as we know them in Scotland, (otherwise known as German biscuits, or Belgian biscuits) are a delicious shortbread biscuit sandwich. They sandwich jam inbetween the two shortbread biscuits, and top it off with some icing and a glace cherry (or Jelly Tots if your kids prefer!) You could use any shortbread type recipe for the biscuit as long as it’s not too sweet – the jam and icing sugar topping will add all the sweetness you need.

A classic empire biscuit recipe has a glace cherry on top for decoration. I don’t always have glace cherries in the house (who does?!) and i’m sure my kids would pick them off if I did use them, so for a child friendly alternative, simply use a jelly sweetie like ‘Jelly Tots’, a sugar decoration, or just leave them plain. I like the look glace cherries add, but the biscuits are still delicious without them.

How can kids help make empire biscuits?

Empire biscuits are really easy biscuits to make and perfect for baking with kids as there are only a few ingredients which you just mix all together into a bowl with your hands. Be prepared for a bit of mess though – that’s going to be unavoidable when you’re using flour, cornflour and icing sugar in one recipe!

Unlike some of our biscuits, like our fork biscuits or melting moments, these biscuits need to be rolled and cut out. This adds a fun step for children, as it can be a bit like playing with playdough. Keep an eye on how the biscuit dough is rolled out however so it ends up nice and even. If you find it sticking to your rolling pin, either sprinkle over a bit of flour or put a sheet of baking paper on top.

Kids will also enjoy getting assemble and decorate the biscuits. With just a little icing on top, they’re simpler to decorate than some bakes, so great for even little kids. And if messy icing is a step too far for you, you can put kids in charge of adding the cherry or sweetie on top.

If you like these empire biscuits why not try our Mary Berry shortbread recipe. They’re very similar with plenty chance to roll and cut out, but without the added jam and icing.

How long do Empire biscuits keep?

Empire biscuits will keep for a few days in an air tight container. If you want to keep them for longer, you can freeze the undecorated biscuits for up to 3 months. Wrap the baked biscuits in cling film and pop them in a freezer bag. Make sure you defrost them fully before you decorate and serve them.

What can I use instead of cornflour?

In the UK cornflour is a fine white flour made from ground maize. It’s often used for thickening sauces, and makes these biscuits lovel and soft. In the USA, the equivalent of cornflour is cornstarch.

What other Scottish recipes can I make?

If you want to browse some of our other Scottish recipes you can find them all together in one place, or check out our favourites:

Millionaire’s shortbread
Cranachan
Oat cakes
Empire biscuits
Scottish shortbread
Scotch broth
Shortbread fingers
Chocolate chip shortbread
Potato scones

Other easy biscuit recipes for kids

Why not try one of our other favourite easy biscuit recipes for kids:

Chocolate dodgers
Fork biscuits
Melting moments
Custard creams
Rock buns
Cornish Fairings
Raisin biscuits

Useful equipment

You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make these empire biscuits

Digital scales
Mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Rolling pin
Baking tray
Wire rack

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Difficulty: Easy

Time: 30 minutes + 10 minutes baking

Serves: 10 biscuits

Ingredients

For the biscuits:

175g (3/4 cups) butter (softened)
175g (1 1/4 cups) plain / all-purpose flour
50g (1/2 cup) icing / confectioners sugar
50g (1/2 cup) corn flour (or cornstarch)

To decorate:
Strawberry or raspberry jam
100g icing / confectioners sugar
Water
8 glacé cherry halves or Jelly Tots (optional – you can use any decoration)

How to make empire biscuits

Preheat your oven to 180C/170C fan / 350F, and line one or two baking tray with baking paper.

Mix all the ingredients together

Get your little ones to measure out the flour (175g), corn flour (50g), icing sugar (50g) and butter (175g) and pop it all in a large mixing bowl. If your butter isn’t soft enough it can be hard to mix in so we normally chop it up and pop it in the microwave for a few seconds before adding it to our bowl.

Start by getting your kids to rub everything together with their fingers so the mixture looks like breadcrumbs and the butter is well distributed.

Then, using your hands mix everything together until it forms a nice ball of dough.

Make the biscuits

Lightly flour your work surface and roll the dough out until it’s just under ¼ inch or just 1/2 cm thick. To stop the dough sticking to the rolling pin you can put a sheet of baking paper over the top of it.

Using a round cookie cutter cut out 16 biscuits and place them on a lined baking tray. We used a 7/8mm cutter but you could use a bigger/smaller one to get more/fewer biscuits.

Bake the biscuits

Pop the baking trays in the oven for around 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven before they turn golden brown. Leave them to cool on the baking tray for a minute or two before putting them on a wire rack to cool completely.

Decorate your Empire biscuits

Lay your biscuits out and get your little ones to help you spread jam over the top of half of them. Get another biscuit and sandwich it on top. This can make hands a little messy, so make sure you have a cloth to hand!

Mix about 100g of icing sugar with about a teaspoon or so of water in a small bowl. Mix it until it is just runny enough to drop of your spoon. If you need to, add some more water/icing sugar to make it runnier/thicker until you have the right consistency.

Spoon a teaspoon of icing on the top of your biscuits and spread it out with the back of your spoon and then decorate with a glace cherry, sweetie or whatever else you are using.

Serve and enjoy!

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Similar recipes

If you liked these empire biscuits you’ll love our melting moment biscuits, other biscuit and cookie recipes as well as our favourite easy bakes for kids.

This recipe was first made in January 2020, and updated with new pictures in April 2023.