Biscuits

Occhi di bue biscuits are simple but delicious biscuits made with two discs of classic shortcrust pastry and filled with jam, chocolate spread, or whatever you desire. 

Easy to make but very beautiful to serve with a cup of tea when you have guests at home.

The top pastry disc has a hole in the center, in fact they are called this because the shape resembles that of an egg cooked “all’occhio di bue”.

Procedure

You can make this recipe in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or in a bowl by hand with the spatula.

Then weigh the margarine at room temperature into the bowl.

Add the lemon zest.

Add the sugar and salt.

Mix by hand or with a spatula for a few minutes until the mixture becomes creamy; there should be no pieces of margarine left, but everything should be well combined.

Pour in the first part of the milk, the milk must be at room temperature.

Mix, add 2 tablespoons of flour and continue mixing, then add the rest of the milk. 

Sift the dry ingredients together, including the flour, starch, and baking powder, and pour them into the bowl. Mix until a smooth dough forms.

Then form a rectangular loaf about 2cm thick, wrap it in cling film and leave to rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours. 

Preheat oven to 170˚C fan-assisted.

Sprinkle a little flour on your work surface and roll out the pastry with a rolling pin until it's about 0.5 cm thick. Occasionally, add flour to both sides to keep the pastry from sticking to the surface. 

Using a 6cm diameter round or flower-shaped cookie cutter, cut out 18 biscuits. 

Using a 3cm diameter round cookie cutter, cut out 9 of these biscuits in the centre. 

Transfer all the cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a perforated baking mat. Bake at 170˚C (fan oven) for about 20 minutes, until golden brown.

With the leftover pastry, knead lightly again, let it rest again in the fridge, then roll out and cut out more biscuits.

Let it cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Now take the filled discs and turn them upside down, so that since they are flat they will fit better with the other pastry disc. 

Fill with a teaspoon of the filling of your choice, so jam, marmalade, chocolate spread, peanut butter, etc. about 15 grams.

Place the perforated biscuits on top and dust with powdered sugar. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.