350g(2 2⁄3 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
1⁄4teaspoonbaking powder
Pinchof fine sea salt
125g(1⁄2 cup plus 1 tbsp) unsalted butter, at room temp
180g(1 cup) caster superfine sugar
1tspvanilla extract
1egg, plus 1 egg yolk
To assemble and finish
Raspberry jam, jelly
Icing, confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Instructions
Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/400°F and line two large baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment.
Put the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and work it into the flour using your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and mix through. Now add the egg and extra yolk and knead into a stiff dough. (Alternatively, put all the ingredients into the bowl of a free-standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, and beat until they come together as a stiff dough.)
Lightly dust the work surface with flour. Divide the dough in half and roll one half out to a 5mm/1/8in thickness. Cut out small rounds using a fluted cutter (see pages 258–9). Lay these on one of the baking sheets. Repeat with the other half of dough, laying the rounds on the second baking sheet. Use a smaller star- or heart-shaped cutter to cut out a shape from the centre of half of the rounds. (You can either place these small cut-out shapes on another lined baking sheet and bake them after the Doppeldecker, or simply roll them up into a ball of dough with all the offcuts and continue making the larger biscuits.)
Bake for about 10 minutes until lightly golden brown. Transfer the biscuits to two wire racks, one for the whole biscuits and one for the cut- out biscuits, to cool completely.
Once cool, spoon about 1⁄2 teaspoon of jam onto each whole biscuit. Dust each cut-out biscuit with icing sugar and gently lay one on top of each jam-covered biscuit. Stored in an airtight tin, these will keep for at least 3 weeks