Monkey Face Biscuits
Get ready, because the kids will go bananas over these adorable Monkey Face Jam-Filled Biscuits!
This easy-to-follow recipe results in a soft and delightfully tasty biscuit that will leave you wanting more (unless you make them really big). 😄🤣 These biscuits are versatile and can be made in any shape you desire. Perfect for kids’ parties, afternoon tea, or just a fun treat to enjoy at home.
Monkey face ingredients:
- Plain flour- you could use biscuit flour here if you have it, that will make them more tender, but I just used my plain flour and didn’t over-process. See more info on flour here.
- Custard powder – Commercially, we used to use something similar to this, but the supermarket custard powder seems to work just as well. If you can get Foster Clark or Birds, It will help give you that custardy flavour we all love and make your cookies a little more creamy yellow in colour.
- Flaked salt or fine salt- don’t leave this out; it helps heighten the flavour. Read the measurements for flaked or fine.
- Baking powder – helps make your cookies more tender.
- Caster sugar – As white sugar, I only purchase caster sugar. It’s better for baking, and I can’t think of a reason why I’d want the larger granules, so I don’t keep them.
- Unsalted butter, cold from the fridge and cut into cubes – This is important for the Thermomix method. You need to keep your butter chilled. In fact, if it’s hot in your kitchen, chill the biscuit dough before rolling it out and, if needed, again once you cut them. Hot kitchens aren’t great for cookie-making. Chill the dough right down if you’re using the traditional or conventional method.
- 1 large egg – Large or Extra Large will work.
- Vanilla – Vanilla balances the flavours in this recipe using proper vanilla rather than artificial makes all the difference.
- 20 g milk (or milk alternative for lactose intolerance) – it’s not much, but it’s just enough to help soften the monkey face biscuit dough and make it easier to roll out. Don’t go overboard with the liquid; add enough to make the dough soft like a pastry. Too soft, and it will be more like paste.
Monkey Face Biscuits
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becs-table.com.auFound in bakeries all over Australia, in years gone by. Do you remember the traditional Jam Filled Monkey Face biscuit?
Equipment
- 1 Thermomix or Stand Mixer
Ingredients
- 250 g plain flour
- 50 g Custard powder I used Birds
- 1 g (1/2 tsp) flaked salt
- 3 g (1/2 tsp) baking powder
- 100 g sugar caster
- 120 g unsalted butter cold from the fridge cut into cubes
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 20 g milk or milk alternative for lactose intolerance.
Instructions
- Set the oven to 170°C
- Weigh the flour, custard powder, salt, baking powder and caster sugar into the TM bowl MC in mix 4 seconds/speed 6
- Add the cold cubes of butter into the TM bowl and mix again 10 seconds/speed 6
- Weigh in the egg, vanilla and milk set to mix for 3 seconds/speed 6 then lift and scrape down and set to knead for 30 seconds. Were looking for a crumbly mass of dough, but when pressed together with your fingers it should fairly soft and stay together. if it’s not all combined scrape down and give it 3 seconds on speed 6 but it should be mixed well by this stage.
- Tip the crumbly mass out onto a baking mat and roll out. If you’re making them as traditional monkey faces you want to roll them out to just under 1/2 cm thick. Remember you’ll be sandwiching two together so not too thick. Cut eye’s and a mouth using cutters for one side of the cookies. However you can make them any shape you like of course.
- Roll out, cut out and bake on a lined baking tray. Bake until you start to see the first signs of colour. remove from the oven leave on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Once cold, spread the plain side of the cookie with jam then top with the monkey face side. Dust with icing before serving if you wish.
Traditional Stand Mixer Method:
- Add the cold cubes of butter to your stand mixer bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes or so to allow the butter to soften slightly.
- Add the paddle attachment and beat until soft.
- Weigh in the sugar and beat again until creamed.
- While this is happening weigh the flour, custard powder, salt and baking powder into a bowl, with a whisk mix well to combine all the ingredients.
- Once the butter/sugar has creamed add the egg and vanilla and mix again to combine. Scrape down the sides and lift any butter stuck to the base of your bowl before continuing.
- Add the dry ingredients back to the bowl and beat in slowly at first then gradually turn up the speed.
- Add the milk to loosen the mix, setting the mixer on low to combine.
- Tip the contents out of the bowl, wrap the flattened disc in clingfilmed or baking paper and pop in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes before removing and rolling out.
Notes
These biscuits need to be reasonably firm, and the dough is not overly sweet because we’re filling them with jam. The more you bake them, the firmer they’ll get, but don’t overbake; you don’t want them too hard. Don’t move them off the cookie sheet until they’ve had around 5 minutes to cool; this will help keep them together. The number of biscuits will depend on the size of the cutter, and the time they take to bake will also depend on their size. I recommend baking them until you see the first signs of colour to ensure they’re not too hard. If you want to add coconut instead of icing when they’re cooked, the traditional way would be to brush on some egg white and immediately sprinkle them with coconut. Then you have to let them dry off and set before storing.