Who doesn’t like Napolitaines? I know they are super sweet – especially the thick pink icing that covers the shortbread biscuits sandwiched together with strawberry or raspberry jam – but they are a very popular french cake in Mauritius and they are sold at every bakery shop or at every corner of the street. When I was a child, I used to love eating those and now my boys love eating them too! They are very easy to make. The hardest part is covering the biscuits with the icing but with practice, it can get quite easy. They are great with a nice cup of Mauritian tea! The shape of Napolitaines is usually round and the icing color is usually pink but you can get very fancy and be different by making other shapes such as heart, star or square. The icing can be a multitude of colors other than pink and you can also add decorations on top such as sprinkles. Good luck!
NAPOLITAINES
Ingredients:
2 cups flour, sifted
1 cup margarine, room temperature
Strawberry jam, stirred to loosen
2 cups icing sugar
2-3 tbsp hot water
Few drops of red food coloring
How To:
Preheat oven to 350F (180C)
Rub the margarine into the flour, and knead into a soft dough
Rollout the dough on a lightly floured surface, to less than 1cm thick
Cut out circles 2 inches in diameter out of the dough
Knead any left-over dough together, and rollout again. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until dough is used up
Place circles on lightly greased baking sheets, and bake for about 8-9 mins
Once cooled, pair up the biscuits. Spread jam on one, and sandwich with the other
Melt the icing sugar with 2-3 tbsp hot water. Add sugar and/or water as required to obtain a flowing yet viscous consistency. Add 1-2 drops of coloring and stir to make very light pink icing
Coat the biscuits by pouring the icing over.