Ginger biscuit medals recipe

Ingredients

• ½ quantity of Swedish Ginger Biscuits dough
• 1 cup (150 g) icing/confectioners’ sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
• ¾ cup (200 ml) whipping cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar or extract
• ½ quantity of Pastry Cream alternatively use store-bought
• plain/all-purpose flour, for dusting
• red berries, such as raspberries or redcurrants, to decorate

• 1 egg yolk
• ¼ cup (50 g) caster/superfine sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornflour/cornstarch
• 1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
• seeds from ½ vanilla pod/bean
• 1 tablespoon (15 g) butter
• a pinch of salt
• a round cookie cutter approx. 6–7 cm/2¼ –2 ¾in. in diameter
• 2 piping/pastry bags

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) Gas 6. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. Dust your work surface with flour and roll out the dough to a thickness of approx. 2 mm/⅛ in. Using the cookie cutter, cut out 16 circles (you only need 12, but some bake unevenly so cut extra). Place on the lined baking sheets. Bake in the preheated oven for 6–7 minutes until baked through oven times can vary, so keep an eye on them. Leave to cool and crisp up.
3. Mix the icing/confectioners’ sugar with drops of hot water to make a thick but smooth mixture – it needs to be pipe-able, but too thin and it will flood; too thick and it will be difficult to pipe. Put in a piping/pastry bag and cut a small opening. Place six baked rounds on the work surface, pipe the icing in a neat circle on the biscuits and let dry.
4. Whip the cream with the vanilla sugar and the extra tablespoon of icing/confectioners’ sugar until stiff, then place in a piping/pastry bag fitted with a star nozzle/tip. Place the remaining six rounds on a plate and spoon 1 tablespoon of pastry cream (see below) on each one, then pipe on whipped cream to a height of 2.5 cm/1 in. Carefully place the iced tops on the cream. Add more whipped cream and berries to decorate.
Pastry Cream
5. Makes approx. 300 g/10½ oz. so you may have some left over. If using this recipe for a standard layer cake, double it but use 1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg.
6. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, sugar and cornflour/cornstarch.
7. Place the milk in a pan with the vanilla seeds, bring to the boil, then take the pan off the heat and pour one-third into the egg mixture while whisking. Once whisked, pour back into the pan and bring back to the boil, whisking continuously. Let it thicken for a minute, making sure it does not burn, then remove from the heat and stir in the butter and salt. Pour into a bowl and leave to cool (place baking parchment on top to stop a skin forming). Use only when cold.