Y is for Yoyos

This blog post will be as short & sweet as yoyos themselves. My favourite bikkie for their crumbly, custardy goodness. Easy to make. Easy to eat too many of.

I refer to the good old Edmonds Cookery Book - a staple of many a New Zealand household over the years. Their recipe for yoyos is my go-to. Here it is, with my own take on it & a few little tips along the way.

Enjoy!

Ingredients for the bikkies

175g soft butter (leave the butter out on your kitchen bench for a little while to bring to room temperature where it will soften nicely. Either that, or pop in the microwave & do very short bursts to just soften it. You don't want to melt it though, so keep a close eye on it!)

1/4 cup icing sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup custard powder

Ingredients for the butter filling

50g soft butter (see above tip for softening the butter)

1/2 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons custard powder

What to do...

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C static or 160C fan bake.
2. Prepare two baking trays by spraying with a little cooking spray, then lining with non-stick baking paper (the spray keeps the paper in place on the tray).
3. Using a cake mixer, cream the butter and icing sugar until well combined & creamy. Scrape down the sides in between bursts to ensure it combines evenly.
4. Add vanilla - mix again.
5. Stop the mixer & grab a sieve. Place it over the bowl & then into the sieve, put the flour & custard powder. Sift together into the butter mix. Start mixing slowly (to avoid a haze of flour & custard!) & then increase speed until you have a dough mixture. Scrape down sides in between bursts to ensure the dough combines evenly.
6. Grab a teaspoon & then roll teaspoon-full amounts of dough into balls. Place on the tray, allowing around 3cm in between each one.
7. You should end up with around 20-24 individual yoyo bikkies depending on how generous you are with portion sizes. 
8. Grab a fork, dip it in some plain flour (to stop it sticking to the biscuit) & then lightly press each yoyo to flatten slightly. When you're done, place the yoyos in the oven for 15-20 minutes. I would recommend putting the timer on for 10 minutes, then turning the trays to ensure an even bake. Depending on how fast your oven is, keep an eye on them after the 10 minute mark. You might not need the full 20 minutes. You're not wanting the yoyos to turn golden or anything - they just need to dry out in the oven. On their base, they will show a hint of golden brown - which will mean they're ready to remove from the oven.
9. Set the trays of yoyos to one side until they have cooled enough to handle, then place the yoyos on a wire rack to cool completely before icing & sandwiching together.
10. While the yoyos are cooling down, prepare the butter filling by adding all the ingredients to a cake mixer (or if you're feeling energetic, you could beat by hand. Much easier to use a mixer - hand held or free standing). Mix until creamy. It'll take a few minutes to come together to form an icing consistency - it'll look crumbly at first. Keep mixing! The icing doesn't make much at all, but it is plenty for 20-24 yoyos and perhaps a couple more! 
11. Pop the icing into a piping bag with a pretty little nozzle & pipe onto a yoyo, before sandwiching it together with a plain, un-iced yoyo. Repeat this process & if you're lucky, you might have made an uneven amount of yoyos - so it would be rude not to eat the spare one. Call it quality control.

Final tip: like any baking recipe, ensure you measure the ingredients accurately. Slightly over or under will make all the difference to how the finished product turns out. For dry ingredient cup measurements, I like to scrape the top of the cup with a butter knife to level it. That way, I'm sure I have exactly the required amount.