Iced Gems
These Iced Gems are my take on the nostalgic British biscuits I remember eating as a child: tiny, crisp biscuits topped with colorful peaks of sweet royal icing.
After seeing Iced Gems return as a technical challenge on The Great British Bake Off, I wanted to make my own version at home. I kept the biscuit simple and lightly vanilla, closer to the plain little biscuit I remember underneath the icing.
The result is a crisp, lightly buttery biscuit with a gentle vanilla sweetness and a firm royal icing made with real egg white. Once dried overnight, the icing becomes hard and crunchy.
And I have to say, I like them even more than the packet Iced Gems I grew up with.
What Are Iced Gems?
Iced Gems are tiny British biscuits topped with a piped icing peak. They’re particularly recognizable for their bright pastel colors and crisp royal icing, and have long been a nostalgic childhood favorite in the UK.
Each biscuit is only about 2 cm across, so although this recipe makes around 90–100 biscuits, they really are very small.
What Makes These Iced Gems Different?
These Iced Gems use a plain, crisp vanilla biscuit rather than a flavored shortbread, topped with a classic royal icing.
That’s closer to the Iced Gems I remember from childhood. The Great British Bake Off technical challenge used an orange shortbread base, but the packet version many of us grew up with had a much plainer, crisp biscuit underneath the icing.
The biscuit is deliberately lightly sweet, because the icing provides plenty of sweetness on its own. That gives you a better balance between the crisp biscuit and crunchy icing, while keeping the recipe simple.
Tips for Making Iced Gems
Roll the dough evenly. I roll mine to about 4 mm thick, before cutting with a 2 cm round cutter.
Chill before baking. Chilling the rolled dough and then the cut biscuits helps them keep their neat shape.
Make the icing very stiff. The peaks should stand upright without drooping. If the icing is too soft, add a little more sifted powdered sugar.
Use gel food coloring. It gives good color without thinning the royal icing too much.
Dry them overnight. Leave the piped Iced Gems uncovered at room temperature until the icing is completely hard.
Store at room temperature. Once the royal icing is fully dry, store the Iced Gems in an airtight container and enjoy within 3–5 days.
If you enjoy making classic British biscuits at home, you might also like my Custard Creams, Jammy Dodgers, or British Digestive Biscuits.
Iced Gems
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Place the butter and sugar in a medium bowl and cream together by hand until smooth and combined.
- Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Add the flour and salt and mix until the dough starts to come together.
- Add the milk and mix until you have a smooth, cohesive dough.
- Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to about 4 mm thick. Chill the rolled dough for 15 minutes.
- Cut the dough into rounds using a 2 cm cutter, and transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Chill for another 10 minutes.
- While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 350°F conventional.
- Bake for 11 minutes, until set and only lightly golden around the edges.
- Leave the biscuits on the sheet pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
- Whisk the egg white and lemon juice in a clean bowl until lightly frothy.
- Gradually add the sifted powdered sugar, whisking well until the icing becomes thick, glossy and very stiff.
- Divide the icing between four small bowls and color with gel food coloring (as desired).
- Transfer each color to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
- Pipe a small star of icing onto each cooled biscuit – dividing the colors evenly between the biscuits.
- Leave the Iced Gems uncovered at room temperature overnight, until the royal icing is completely hard and crunchy.
Notes
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