The Real Deal

There are in life a number of things that are almost always disappointing. Office Christmas party Secret Santa gifts, for instance. For me, a lot of these things are baked goods. Cupcakes that are beautifully decorated, but the first bite of which reveals they are clearly made from box mix. Lemon meringue pie bought at a cafe. And the worst offender? Melting Moments.

Oh, yes. You know what I'm talking about, you horrid rock-hard tasteless cookie, you. Sitting up there in a glass jar on the counter of the coffee shop, looking all tasty.

Well fear not, readers. Because I'm going to share with you The Best Melting Moments In The Known Universe (as determined by me). Now I didn't create this recipe - I got it from my mother, and I daresay she got it out of a cookbook somewhere. But damn, it's good. I have altered it this much: by the addition of lemon zest, and by making up the icing as I go along.

Melting Moments

250g butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
225g Plain flour
1/2 cup cornflour
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Cream butter, sugar & lemon zest together. Sift flours into mixture and combine.


Roll mixture lightly into small balls, and place on a lined baking tray. Flatten each slightly with a fork, as shown:

Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 - 12 minutes, or until they are juuuuust starting to get a touch of colour around the edges (you want more or less the whole cookie to stay pale).

(As you can see in this picture, I was messing around and thought I'd try making some chocolate ones by substituting some of the plain flour for cocoa powder. They were good too, but the lemon ones are still my favourite)

Next, make your icing. You can play around with this and make it to your own taste, but essentially you want some combination of icing sugar, lemon juice and a little butter. I like it to have a noticeable zing from the lemon juice. The only thing to keep in mind is that it does need to be very thick. And if you want it to set hardish (which you do if you're like me), then not too much butter - the icing should be quite white.

Then just spread a decent amount on one biscuit...

... then sandwich with another, and leave to set. Then put the kettle on!

Oh, yeah. These are The Real Deal - just like your nanna used to make.

But be warned: Once you taste these, you'll never eat one from a cafe again...