This Melting Moments recipe creates delicate sandwich cookies that literally melt in your mouth. The sweet and tart passionfruit icing centers balance the light texture of the biscuits perfectly for a delightful biscuit you'll want to come back to again and again.
Table of Contents
What are Melting Moments?
Melting Moments are buttery cookies known for their delicate texture and the way they effortlessly melt in your mouth. Most often flavored with vanilla or passionfruit. The most buttery biscuits sandwiched between a delicious lightly fragrant icing flavored with passionfruit.
Ingredients and substitutions for Melting Moments
- Butter: Unsalted softened butter is used, but salted also works as a fine substitute. Simply leave out any salt suggested in the recipe.
- Sugar: Confectioners or icing sugar dissolves into the cookies and icing, giving them a real melt-in-your-mouth texture. The superfine or caster sugar helps draw out the sugars in the passionfruit and dissolve to create a beautiful syrup. You could substitute with raw sugar. It is not recommended to replace the icing sugar with a different type of sugar.
- Flour: Plain or all purpose flour is best for a nice light cookie crumb.
- Corn starch: Sometimes termed cornflour in certain parts of the globe. Corn starch is what gives our biscuits the melt-in-your-mouth touch which differentiates them from shortbread.
- Salt: Salt adds dimension and balance to the passionfruit icing. Sea salt is best, but rock salt also works well.
- Passionfruit: Fresh passionfruit was used as sourcing passionfruit syrup is not easy where I live. If you are able to source passionfruit syrup, simply substitute the fresh fruit with 40 grams / 2 tablespoons of passionfruit syrup.
- Lemon juice and vanilla extract: The tang in the passionfruit is lost whilst making the syrup so the acidity from the lemon juice helps balance all the flavors evenly. Without the lemon juice your filling will be sweet and have a very shallow flavor. The vanilla extract works to add a depth of flavor to the syrup also.
- Milk: A small amount of milk doesn't just help add moisture to the icing, but the fat in the full fat milk adds creaminess also. Feel free to replace in equal measure here with dairy free and add a tablespoon amount and then teaspoon amounts to the icing so as to ensure it does not become too runny.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make Melting Moments:
Step 1: Butter base: Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until pale and fluffy.
Step 2: Dries: Add the flour and cornflour and combine.
Step 3: Scoop: Scoop and roll, placing the dough onto your baking tray.
Step 4: Press: Using a fork, press firmly down on your cookie and bake until lightly golden on the edges.
Step 5: Syrup: Make the passionfruit syrup and pour into a small bowl to cool.
Step 6: Finish frosting: Place all the ingredients into a bowl and whip until smooth.
Step 7: Scoop and sandwich: Scoop and place into the center of one biscuit, sandwiching with a second.
Step 8: Enjoy: Serve up and dig in!
FAQโs for the best Melting Moments
They are eerily similar, however, yo-yo biscuits are made with custard powder which gives them a more yellow hue whilst melting moments are made with cornflour or cornstarch.
The amount of cornflour in these biscuits helps to prevent the development of gluten from the flour meaning they stay buttery and soft; giving them the melt-in-your-mouth texture we know and love.
The key to achieving the perfect melt-in-your-mouth texture with your melting moments is using the right ratio of cornflour and flour to your butter. Make sure the butter is softened (where an indent is left when you press it, it should be very soft), as this will create the desired tender texture. Cream the butter and sugar properly before adding the dry ingredients and avoid over-mixing the dough.
To keep your Melting Moments cookies fresh and maintain their delicate texture, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. They should stay fresh for about a week. If you live in a humid climate, adding a sheet of parchment paper between layers can help prevent them from sticking together.
More passionfruit recipes you'll love
Melting Moments
Ingredients
Biscuits
- 200 grams / 7 ounces butter softened and cubed
- 75 grams / ยพ cup confectionerโs/icing sugar
- 4 grams / 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 120 grams / ยพ cup plain flour
- 120 grams / 1 cup cornflour
Passionfruit filling
- 1 fresh passionfruit seeds and juice only
- 14 grams / 1 tablespoon superfine/caster sugar
- 14 grams / 1 tablespoon butter softened
- 230 grams / 2 cups confectionerโs/icing sugar
- 25 grams / 1 ยฝ tablespoons milk
- ยผ teaspoon sea or kosher salt
- ยผ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ยฝ teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180C/350F and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Biscuits
- Place the butter, sugar and vanilla extract into a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy, approximately 4 minutes.
- Add the flour and cornflour and combine on low until no dry portions remain in the base or edges of your bowl.
- Scoop a piece of dough the size of a heaped tablespoon and roll in your palm.
- Place onto your baking tray and press to flatten to your preference.
- Press tines of a fork into the top and center of your cookie and press firmly down.
- Repeat, allowing 1 inch between each biscuit.
- Place in the oven and bake until ever so lightly golden on the edges, but still pale in appearance, approximately 18 minutes.
- Remove and allow to cool fully on a wire rack.
Passionfruit filling
- Place the passionfruit and superfine/caster sugar into a small saucepan and simmer until reduced, approximately 3 minutes.
- Remove from the heat, pour into a small bowl and set aside.
- Place the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and lemon juice into a bowl and the cooled passionfruit syrup together and whip until smooth and combined.
- Scoop a heaped teaspoon amount and place into the center of one biscuit.
- Take a second and press down from the center of your biscuit to spread the icing evenly.
- Continue with the remaining biscuits until all are filled.
- Serve up and dig in!
Video
Notes
- Passionfruit: Fresh passionfruit was used as sourcing passionfruit syrup is not easy where I live. If you are able to source passionfruit syrup, simply substitute the fresh fruit with 40 grams / 2 tablespoons of passionfruit syrup.
- Lemon juice and vanilla extract: The tang in the passionfruit is lost whilst making the syrup so the acidity from the lemon juice helps balance all the flavors evenly. Without the lemon juice your filling will be sweet and have a very shallow flavor. The vanilla extract works to add a slight depth of flavor to the syrup also.
- Milk: A small amount of milk doesn't just help add moisture to the icing, but the fat in the full fat milk adds creaminess also. Feel free to replace in equal measure here with dairy free and add a tablespoon amount and then teaspoon amounts to the icing so as to ensure it does not become too runny.
- Ice Cream Scoop/s: The scoop used here creates medium cookies with a diameter of 6 centimeters / 2.36 inches. With a smaller 1.97 inches / 5 centimeters scoop used for putting the icing into the center of our biscuits.
- How Melting Moments and Yo-Yo Biscuits are different: They are eerily similar, however, yo-yo biscuits are made with custard powder which gives them a more yellow hue whilst melting moments are made with cornflour or cornstarch.
- How cornflour/starch works in this recipe: The amount of cornflour in these biscuits helps to prevent the development of gluten from the flour meaning they stay buttery and soft; giving them the melt-in-your-mouth texture we know and love.
- Storing Melting Moments: Store in an airtight container at room temperature. They should stay fresh for about a week. If you live in a humid climate, adding a sheet of parchment paper between layers can help prevent them from sticking together.
Nutrition
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