Recently, one of the children Roy knows has asked for a specific recipe. When this child was on holidays with their family they purchased these soft, yellow biscuits sandwiched together with pink icing at a country shop. They had them for lunch, and loved the biscuits, but they didn't know what they were called, or how to make them, and they were a long way away before the ate them. The child asked Roy if he might know what they were, and how to make them. Luckily, these biscuits just happen to be one of Roy's favourites. Today, they usually seem to be called Yoyo Biscuits, but the original recipes which Roy has (and we have a few) call them Radio Biscuits. Either way, they are delicious! So this week, Roy Creates Radio Biscuits (Or Yoyos)
Note: there are a few recipes for similar biscuits, and they seem to all have slightly different proportions. This recipe is the one Roy's Grandma has always made. It was converted from ounces. There is a bit of dispute about the correct conversions. Some say 6 ounces is 170 grams, some say it's 185. Roy tends to go with 30 grams per ounce (it's easy to calculate!), so he comes up with 180 grams. Just remember if you are comparing recipes, these old recipes don't have to be precise and as long as you are out by the same amount each time, you will be fine!
You Will Need:
Biscuit:
- 180 grams of plain flour
- 180 grams of soft butter or margarine
- 60 grams of custard powder
- 60 grams of icing sugar. If you use pure icing sugar, you will need to sift it because you don't want lumps.
Icing:
Note: The original recipe calls for a butter cream, which is what Roy is making to show you how it is done, but Roy's Grandma has always used regular icing, as do most people Roy knows who make these biscuits. If you don't know how to make Roy's Regular Icing, visit Roy's Cup Cake recipe by clicking here. You will only need a quarter of the recipe though! Traditionally, you should use vanilla icing, tinted pink, not chocolate!
If you use butter cream you will need to keep the biscuits in the fridge to stop the cream melting. If you use regular icing, they will be fine in the biscuit tin.
- 3 tablespoons of icing sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of soft butter
- Pink food colouring
- Vanilla essence to taste.
Method:
- Cream the butter and sugar. You don't really need electric beaters for this. In fact, they probably weren't invented when this recipe was first made! Just make sure your butter is soft and use a wooden spoon.
- Sift together the flour and custard powder.
- Add the flour and custard powder to the butter mix, and beat it in. You want a soft, smooth dough.
- Now, you will be rolling the dough with your hands, so make sure they are clean! Take small lumps and roll them into balls (Roy uses about a teaspoon of dough at a time).
- Put the balls onto a prepared baking tray and gently squish them with a fork. You want to have an even number of biscuits because you will be sandwiching two together.
- Bake for about 20 minutes. They should be a pale yellow and don't worry about the orange flecks - it's the custard powder.
- Put the biscuits onto a rack and let them cool completely.
- When the biscuits are cool, put a dob of icing onto the flat side of one, and place another on top. Roy finds that if you give the biscuits a little twist you get a nice coverage.
To make Butter Cream Icing:
- With a spoon beat the butter and icing sugar together until they are smooth. Add a drop of vanilla essence (add more to taste, but it shouldn't be too strong) and beat this in.
- Now, you need to tint the icing. Traditionally the icing should be pink (no, we don't know why, and we suppose you could make it another colour if you really didn't like pink). Roy uses a skewer to add the food colouring, so that it doesn't become too bright.
- Now you're ready to ice!
- Set aside the biscuits for the icing to set (you will need to keep them in the fridge) and enjoy!