Orange and Almond Yo-Yos

It is only fitting that the first recipe I post should be in keeping with the Kiwi inspiration behind our blog. This week I was helping out with morning tea for my department and I decided to make a New Zealand favourite: Yo-Yo’s, a pair of deliciously buttery biscuits sandwiched together with an equally buttery filling. This recipe puts a twist on the original by using orange and almond flavours.

For the biscuits:

250g butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla essence

80g icing sugar, sifted

225g plain flour

75g cornflour

For the orange almond filling:

80g butter, softened

2 tsp. grated orange rind

A few drops of almond essence

110g of icing sugar

 

Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan. Grease and line an oven tray with baking paper.

Beat together butter, vanilla essence and icing sugar until light and fluffy.

Stir in sifted flour and cornflour.

Roll large teaspoons of the mixture into balls and place on the tray 3cm apart. (Don’t worry if the mixture seems dry, with enough work it will hold together nicely.)

Use a fork to gently flatten the biscuits. (If you dip the fork into some flour it will stop it from sticking to the biscuits).

 

Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes then cool on trays.

Meanwhile, make the orange almond filling by beating all the ingredients together in a bowl.

Once the biscuits have cooled completely, sandwich pairs together with the butter filling.

Enjoy!