The other day I noticed a container of Bird's custard powder in the cupboard, which has remained untouched since I bought it to make Nanaimo Bars last fall. I figured I should look for another way to put it to use. Thanks to the Internet, I came across the "Melting Moment," an Australian cookie made with cornstarch or, commonly, custard powder (after all, custard powder is merely cornstarch, salt, coloring and flavoring).
I settled on a recipe for "Classic Lemon Melting Moments" -- a sandwich cookie with a lemon filling -- from the Australian magazine Super Food Ideas. It's quite straightforward and only requires six ingredients. For the cookie batter, you simply beat softened butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla, and then incorporate flour and custard powder. You can scoop out the dough immediately (no chilling required) and bake. I used a #50 scoop and got 29 cookies from one batch of dough.
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The filling is a mixture of softened butter, powdered sugar, and lemon zest. I put one #60 scoop worth of filling in each sandwich and I had no filling to spare. The cookies were all the same size and nice and round, so I could match up any two at random to make a neat sandwich. I had flattened down the scoops with my hand before baking and you can see the imprint of my fingers on the tops of the finished cookies, but I don't think it detracted from the overall appearance.
The cookie itself is amazing -- a buttery and tender, melt-in-your mouth shortbread that is fully worthy of the "melting moment" name. I couldn't taste the custard powder, but who cares -- because the cookies were just heavenly. But the filling -- not so much. I thought it was cloyingly sweet and there wasn't enough lemon flavor. I was thinking that maybe I should have added some lemon extract. Or vanilla. Or salt. Or something. This is one of those rare situations where I think the cookies tasted better alone than with the filling.
But this cookie is so delicious that I'm sure I'll make it again (and I still have more custard powder, after all!), and I'll just experiment with the filling next time.
Recipe: "Classic Lemon Melting Moments" from Super Food Ideas, available here on taste.com.au.
I settled on a recipe for "Classic Lemon Melting Moments" -- a sandwich cookie with a lemon filling -- from the Australian magazine Super Food Ideas. It's quite straightforward and only requires six ingredients. For the cookie batter, you simply beat softened butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla, and then incorporate flour and custard powder. You can scoop out the dough immediately (no chilling required) and bake. I used a #50 scoop and got 29 cookies from one batch of dough.
.JPG)
The cookie itself is amazing -- a buttery and tender, melt-in-your mouth shortbread that is fully worthy of the "melting moment" name. I couldn't taste the custard powder, but who cares -- because the cookies were just heavenly. But the filling -- not so much. I thought it was cloyingly sweet and there wasn't enough lemon flavor. I was thinking that maybe I should have added some lemon extract. Or vanilla. Or salt. Or something. This is one of those rare situations where I think the cookies tasted better alone than with the filling.
But this cookie is so delicious that I'm sure I'll make it again (and I still have more custard powder, after all!), and I'll just experiment with the filling next time.
Recipe: "Classic Lemon Melting Moments" from Super Food Ideas, available here on taste.com.au.
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