Weekend Cooking: Arnott's Monte Carlo biscuits

A couple of weeks ago now, I shared all the things I baked in May. One of those delicious morsels was the Monte Carlo biscuit/cookie. Several people asked me about those so today I am sharing the recipe.

First, a little history. Arnott's is possibly one of the best known brands in Australian food. The company was started back in 1847 by a Scottish immigrant by the name of William Arnott. Originally he was a baker who cooked pies and biscuits. The business remained family owned until 1975, but was sold to an American company in the 1990s. Despite concerns that it would lose it's Australian identity, it still makes some of the most iconic Aussie biscuits including Tim Tams, Iced Vovos, Scotch Fingers and Monte Carlos and so many more.

Back in April, Arnott's announced that they would be releasing the recipes for some of their biscuits in response to the fact that so many people were baking more than they had before because of social isolation restrictions thanks to COVID-19. There was much fanfare to these announcements.

They went on to release three recipes, before they switched to releasing recipes made using their biscuits. The cynic in me suggests that maybe they had the publicity they needed. The three recipes were for Scotch Fingers, Iced Vovos and Monte Carlos. I do intend to try the other recipes but I haven''t done so yet. For those who don't know Scotch Fingers are a shortbread biscuit that you can break in half to dunk in your cup of tea, and Iced Vovos are a sweet biscuit with a two strips of fondant icing either side of a strip of raspberry jam and then sprinkled with coconut. Generations of Australians would swear that they used to have marshmallow instead of icing. 

I have to say the biscuits that this recipe makes is Delicious with a capital D. Does it take exactly like a Monte  Carlo from the packet - not exactly. I think you can taste the lemon a lot more in my version. They were so good though, and definitely something that we will make again. 

One thing to note, I strained my jam to get the pips out even though the recipe didn't say to do so.

Another thing to note. Golden syrup is a cane sugar syrup which is available in some places. In the comments on my very first Weekend Cooking post there are some suggestions as to what to use instead (maybe maple syrup or light corn syrup although they are not quite as sweet as golden syrup.

Monte Carlo

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 14 mins

Biscuit

125gm butter, softened
½ cup (125g) caster sugar
½ tsp finely grated lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 egg
40g desiccated coconut
1½ cups (240g) plain flour

Cream filling

60g butter
¾ cup (150g) pure icing sugar
2 tsp milk

Raspberry jam


Preheat oven to 170°C. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. 

In a medium mixing bowl place butter, sugar, lemon rind, vanilla and golden syrup. Beat for approx. 1 minute. Add egg and beat for a further minute. Do not overbeat. Stir in sifted flour and coconut until well combined. 

Place half the dough mixture on a piece of baking paper and wrap to form a log. Repeat with remaining dough mixture. 

Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes or until slightly firm. Using a serrated knife, cut into 8mm slices. 

Place on baking sheet and bake for 14 minutes or until golden. 

Allow to cool on tray for 5 minutes then place on a cooling rack to cool.

For the cream filling, place butter, sugar and milk in a medium bowl and beat until light and fluffy.

Sandwich cooled biscuits with jam and cream

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