Raspberry Cheesecake Sandwich Biscuits

These were supposed to be heart shaped....but guess what I can't find the night before Valentine's Day?  My heart shaped cookie cutter naturally!  Of course, for the rest of the year it will be leaping out of the cupboard at me every time I open it....

Anyway, here are my Raspberry Cheesecake Sandwich Biscuits, which certainly aren't to be limited only to Valentine's Day!  They make a fabulous dessert or an afternoon tea treat.  Normally I prefer to be seasonal but wanted a red berry for this and raspberries are my favourite.  As I'm only using them to make a coulis, I'm very happy to use frozen raspberries for this.

Ingredients

50g Caster Sugar

100g Butter

150g Plain Flour

5 Digestive Biscuits, crushed

approx. 4 tbsp Double Cream

250g Raspberries (I use frozen- thawed)
60g Caster Sugar

200g Cream Cheese

175ml Double Cream

approx. 4 tbsp Icing Sugar (more if you want it sweeter)

More icing sugar for icing if wanted

• To make the biscuits, preheat the oven to 175C (fan).  Cream the butter and 50g of caster sugar together then add the flour, digestive biscuits crumbs and enough double cream to bring it all together into a firm (but not crumbly) dough.
• Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
• Lightly flour your surface and your rolling pin then roll the dough out until 5-10mm thick (keep moving the dough and lightly flouring the surface after each roll to stop it sticking)
• Using a cookie/pastry cutter (or a round glass or cup if you don't have one), dip the edge in flour then cut as many biscuits as you can out of the dough, reforming into a ball and re-rolling when needed.
• Put the rounds (or hearts, humph!) onto a lined baking sheet (my circular cutter is 7cm in diameter and I got 16 biscuits - so 8 when finished)
• Bake in the preheated oven for approx. 10 minutes until golden brown at the edges and firm in the middle.
• Transfer them to a plate or rack and leave to cool completely.
• To make the raspberry coulis, put all the raspberries in a small pan and add the 60g of caster sugar.  If you're using frozen there will be enough liquid as they go quite mushy when thawed, if using fresh raspberries you may need to add a tablespoon or two of water to encourage the raspberries to get juicy!  On a medium heat, gradually warm the mixture, stirring to dissolve the sugar, until it starts to boil, then take off the heat.
• Sieve the raspberry mixture into a bowl, you will need to press and wiggle with a metal spoon to get as much pulp as possible.  Get rid of the seeds then sieve it again to get out any determined seeds that have got through the first time.  Put the coulis aside to cool completely.
• Mix the cream cheese with the icing sugar until creamy.  Whisk the double cream until forming soft peaks then fold into the cream cheese.  Get your cooled raspberry coulis and tablespoon by tablespoon lightly fold it into the creamy mixture, you should need about 7-8 tablespoons leaving some left over for icing or for making raspberry bellinis...yum!
• Being generous with it, use the pink, raspberry cheesecake filling to sandwich the biscuits together.
• If you want to do some icing for the top, use some of the leftover raspberry coulis and add enough icing sugar to make a thick icing.  Then either pipe or just spread onto each sandwich biscuit.
• These can be eaten straight away but do squidge out at the sides (I know from experience)....probably best to chill in the fridge for a few hours to set the filling a bit and soften the biscuits.