Melting Moments-My Foodie Ode to Masterchef

There are certain things that come into our lives and  change our outlook and perspective completely. We suddenly start viewing things in a different light and analyze even the minutest detail. I am sure there are a zillion things creeping in your mind  that perfectly fits this bill.
What I am referring to is about the famous television cooking game show called 'Masterchef', a franchise which first started with the UK version of the show in 1990. The show is now produced in more than 35 countries worldwide!
Well, my tryst with Masterchef began by viewing its most famous Australian version. My story is like most of yours and I got hooked to the show instantly. Needless to mention that our little family is glued to the television everyday between 9-10 pm ( that is basically me and my husband Vishal as Vaanya our daughter all of 15 months is too young to understand or join our madness !)

Masterchef has aspired and enlightened us with the way we look at everyday food and it has made us talk and criticise about enough portions and presentations like seasoned chefs. Suddenly our foodie vocabulary has become full of unheard culinary words and food as a whole is being celebrated like never before. 

As a foodie family me and my husband have found our common love for cooking, experimenting and serving food through this amazing TV show. We discuss and debate over the finesse of the food presentation and aspire to recreate the same in our kitchen.

I have been bookmarking some recipes for the longest time but never tried them. The urge to start one and dig into my saved recipes from the Masterchef series came when one beautiful day I got an invitation from Anuja who is an avid Baker and has an amazing blog site simple baking. She is co-hosting an amazing event called Cook like a star-Masterchef series with Zoe@Bake for the Happy Kids and Baby Sumo@Eat Your Heart Out. 

The first recipe that came to my mind were these yummies called Melting Moments. They are basically two crispy biscuits sandwiched with rasberry jam and vanilla buttercream. The name itself speaks volumes. These biscuits simply melt in your mouth and keeps you mesmerized with their taste.
Today being Teachers day in India, this was a perfect recipe as an ode to a show which has been more of a teacher and a great inspiration to enjoy everyday cooking. 

Recipe adapted from here. I have halved the recipe and reduced the size of the biscuits.

Ingredients: For Biscuits(makes 4 sandwiched biscuits)

• 90g unsalted butter
• 30g icing sugar, sifted(or powdered sugar)
• 30g custard powder(I used Vanilla custard powder)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 90g plain flour

For Vanilla buttercream

• 50g butter, softened
• 1 tspvanilla bean paste/vanilla extract
• 1/2 cupicing sugar, sifted(or powdered sugar)

I used readymade rasberry jam for the filling. You can try other flavours too.

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line oven tray with baking paper or grease with a little butter.
For biscuits, cream butter for two minutes in an electric mixer. Add icing sugar and custard powder 
and mix until combined. Sift the baking powder and flour together then add to the dough and mix well. Roll dough into 30g balls, place on the baking paper lined baking tray and press each ball with a fork to leave an indent. Bake biscuits for 16-18 minutes or until light golden. Stand on trays 5 minutes to cool then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
For buttercream, whisk butter and vanilla until smooth. Add icing sugar and beat until mixture forms a paste, the consistency of thick icing. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle.

To assemble, place jam on the base of one half of the biscuits. Pipe buttercream in a circle onto the base of the other half of the biscuits. Gently press one of each biscuit together to form a melting moment. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Note: The biscuits could have been thinner so next time I will make them weighing 20 gm or lesser.

Happy Baking
Amrita

Sending this recipe to Cook like a star co-hosted by Anuja@simple baking

 to Bake fest#11 with Vardhini

and to FunFair Food Event