Busy bee biscuits
Prep time: 1 hr 15 minsTotal time: 
Busy bee biscuits
Spreadable set honey steps in for most of the sugar in these buttery shortbread biscuits. They’re sandwiched with a zingy white chocolate and lemon ganache, then decorated with bee stripes and little almond ‘wings’
Prep time: 1 hr 15 minsTotal time: 
Abigail Spooner
Abigail Spooner
Ingredients
- 170g unsalted butter, softened
- 130g set honey
- 50g caster sugar
- 260g plain flour, plus extra to dust
- 40g cornflour
- ¼ tsp fine salt
- icing sugar, to dust
For the filling and decoration
- 100g white chocolate, finely chopped
- 70ml double cream
- zest and juice of ½ lemon
- yellow food colour gel
- black writing icing
- about 30 flaked almonds
Step by step
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Put the softened butter, honey and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer (or wooden spoon) for 2-3 minutes until pale and creamy. Add the plain flour, cornflour and salt, then stir with a wooden spoon until combined, before bringing it together with your hands into a soft ball of dough. Flatten into a round, wrap and chill for 1½ hours or until firm.
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Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Cut the chilled dough in half and thinly roll out each half on a lightly floured surface until 3-4mm thick. Use a 6cm round cutter (plain or fluted) to stamp out biscuits – you should get 26-30, re-rolling as necessary. Use a small 2-3cm oval or round cutter to make a hole in the middle of half of the biscuits. Transfer all the biscuits to the lined baking trays and chill for 30 minutes to firm up again. Preheat the oven to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas 5.
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Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden around the edges. Leave to cool on the trays for about 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Meanwhile, make the ganache filling: put the chopped chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Pour the cream into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Once gently simmering, pour the cream over the chocolate and leave to stand for 1 minute, before stirring to a silky smooth ganache. If any chocolate lumps remain, set over a pan of gently simmering water and gently warm until melted and smooth. Stir in the lemon zest and juice, along with enough gel food colouring to give a brighter yellow colour. Press a crumpled sheet of baking paper onto the surface of the ganache and chill for at least 1 hour until thickened.
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Beat the chilled ganache to loosen, if necessary. Spread a layer of the lemon ganache onto the bottom biscuits (without the holes) and smooth out with a palette knife. Dust the top biscuits (with the holes) with icing sugar and gently press onto the bases. Use black writing icing to dot eyes and draw stripes across the exposed yellow ganache to form little bees. Gently press in 2 flaked almond ‘wings’ on each biscuit.
