Bourbon Biscuit Recipe, Homemade Classic British Biscuits
Want a proper Bourbon biscuits recipe? I’ve got the best one for you right below! Sorry, there’s no liquor in this classic British biscuit, but it won’t matter because you’ll fall in love these chocolate cookies anyway.
If you go to the UK, there’s a good chance that you’ll cross paths with the classic British Bourbon biscuits.
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What are Bourbon Biscuits?
Along with Digestives, custard creams, and shortbread, Bourbon creams are some of the most popular biscuits which are frequently enjoyed across the pond. Despite their name, there is no alcohol involved. Bourbon biscuits are simply chocolate sandwich biscuits with a chocolate cream filling.
Like their custard cream cousin, this Bourbon Biscuit recipe requires custard powder to give them their unique flavor. This is not just another chocolate biscuit.
For Christmas last year, my daughter gifted me with something she knew I had wanted, these biscuit cutters! They include Bourbon biscuits, Party Rings, Jammy Dodgers and Custard Creams cutters!
This will explain how I was able to make the Bourbon biscuits look like a store-bought biscuit. No worries if you don’t have them, though; you can just cut the chocolate biscuit dough into fingers and use a fork to prick them. If you use this Bourbon biscuit recipe, they will taste the same with or without the cutters. You can purchase the biscuit cutters here.
NB: according to Wikipedia, these biscuits are called Bourbon biscuits after the European house of Bourbon (nothing to do with the liquor). They also note that Bourbons are apparently the 5th most popular biscuit in the UK for tea dunking!
Classic Bourbon Biscuit Recipe
recipe slightly adapted from Lofty Peak Recipe Book makes about 18 sandwich biscuits
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Ingredients
- flour
- custard powder
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- butter
- sugar
- egg
- confectioner’s sugar
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)
Sift flour, custard powder and good quality cocoa into a large bowl.
Cream butter and sugar, then stir in the egg. Next, add the sifted ingredients from the other bowl and mix to an even dough.
Put the dough onto worktop and using flour, roll out to about 1/8″ thickness and cut into fingers.
Then, place on lined baking tray.
Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, turning half way through baking time to assure even results.
Finally, place on cooling rack and let cool before filling them.
Bourbon Biscuit Cream Filling
recipe by Christina Conte
Mix all the ingredients together to form a stiff buttercream. Adjust with a few drops of liquid; just don’t make the filling too soft.
Next, match up two biscuits at a time (they won’t all be exactly the same size, believe it or not) and sandwich together with the filling.
Continue until all the biscuits and filling are used. Finally, enjoy with a steaming hot, cup of tea!
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More classic English recipes can be found here.
Homemade Bourbon Biscuit Recipe
Ingredients
Biscuit Dough
- 1 ⅓ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup custard powder Bird’s Custard Powder-available on Amazon and in British shops
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa I use Barry cocoa
- 1 stick butter
- ½ cup caster sugar (Baker's)
- 1 egg
Filling
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar (powdered)
- ¼ stick butter
- 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
- milk or water add a few drops at at time until a good consistency is reached
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)
- Sift flour, custard powder and cocoa into a large bowl.
- Cream butter and sugar, then stir in the egg. Add the sifted ingredients from the other bowl and mix to an even dough.
- Place onto worktop and using flour, roll out to about 1/8" thickness and cut into fingers.
- Place on lined baking tray.
- Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, turning half way through baking time to assure even results.
- Place on cooling rack and let cool before filling them.
Bourbon Biscuit Cream Filling
- Mix all the ingredients together to form a stiff buttercream. Adjust with a few drops of liquid; just don't make the filling too soft.
- Match up two biscuits at a time (they won't all be exactly the same size, believe it or not) and sandwich together with the filling.
- Continue until all the biscuits and filling are used. Enjoy with a steaming hot, cup of tea!
Notes
- If you love Bourbon biscuits, try custard creams, too!
Nutrition
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Finally made these. Oh my. I ate the chef’s snack, and, wow, these were fabulous.
I can’t wait to try them with my morning coffee.
They are rather more-ish! Thanks, Charlie! :)
I am looking forward to making these, but I have a question about the metric vs. US ingredient measurements.
Not having worked with Bird’s before, but knowing foodstuffs, it seems to me 1/2 cup (volume) of custard powder should weigh more than 10 grams. I would suggest the metric measurement is more likely 60 grams as in the Custard Creams recipe.
I prefer using weight measurements as they tend to be more repeatable.
Thank you,
Charlie
Thank you for catching that, Charlie! You’re 100% correct, it should be 60g. I recently switched my recipe card format and that included all the ingredients being transferred over. I hand checked each one, but with over 500 recipes, there are bound to be some errors. I’ve fixed this now and found other mistakes (oz instead of grams!) thank you again! I only have cups because most my US readers don’t have scales or refuse to use them, sadly.
Thank you for the update.
Now to find some Bird’s
You’re welcome, and good luck, Charlie!
The Bird’s Custard Powder caught my eye seeing as I’m American—never heard of such a thing. But I have a fondness for all things British and I’m quite interested to make the purchase and get these biscuits going! A good companion they’ll be for a cup of tea or even a mug of thick hot chocolate (if one has a sweet tooth such as I do).
Bird’s Custard is the best, I live in the USA but was born and raised in England until my mid-twenties when I moved over here for work. Custard is one of the biggest things I miss, we put it on everything, all desserts lol These bourbon biscuits where a special treat when I was younger, my Mum would buy them “for best” basically when visitors came. I would eat the top layer and then dunk the rest in a hot up of tea. Yummy! or of course you could dunk them in a cup of “thick hot chocolate.”
Just finished making these and they are delicious! So much chocolate flavor and so easy to make. Thank you and love ur website.
So happy to hear this, Jillian! Thank you so much, it’s very much appreciated! :)
Your recipe for Bourbon Biscuits is wrong!! The quantities you quote in you list of ingredient does not make sense. I.e. the amount of flour? Is it 1 1/2 cups of flour or 6 ounces. One is twice rhe amount of the other. When I made these, they were as hard as rocks and crumbled when you tried to eat them. Smarten up and use the correct measure. You should rewrite this one. Shame shame.
So, I see you have a moderator for comments. I suppose you only share positive comments so mine will never see the light of day 😤😤😤 How misleading!!
Dear Linda, please note this recipe has 146 reviews averaging 4.8 stars out of 5 (accounting for reviews like yours) so clearly you did something wrong. The weight measurements are absolutely perfect; it’s your lack of knowledge of mass and weight that is the issue at hand. You haven’t been very kind to me, so I shall leave it up to you to figure out the science behind why you are wrong (i.e. 1.5 cups of flour IS approxiately 6 ounces because cups are always inaccurate).
As you can see, you were also incorrect in the fact that your comment would never see the light of day. In fact, maybe some other readers will point out your many errors. I have more recipes to write.
How many dry cups is 6 oz?
1 1/2 cups
So if you’re measuring out 6 ounces of liquid ingredients, it would be equivalent to 3/4 of a cup while 6 ounces of dry ingredients would be equal to 1 1/2 cups
So I think you owe the author an apology because someone’s wrong and it’s not them!
Thank you, JM. 🙏🏻
what about the castor sugar and custard powder. I’ll have st go with ounces.
Will be adding the metric options soon as I’m switching all my recipe cards over to a new system.
Are Bourbon Biscuits hard and crisp like Gingernut Biscuits?
Hi Ted no, they are not that hard. They’re a firm biscuit, but definitely more soft than crisp.
The recipe is wrong. Use half of the flour. I.e. either 6 ounces OR 3/4 cup. Definitely not 1 1/2 cups!!!
The recipe is NOT wrong, Linda. Please learn elementary science before telling other readers my recipe is wrong when it is absolutely perfect.
Nothing wrong here.. I’ve tried the recipe as is, they turned out great. Only reduced the sugar in the ButterCream but a LOT but that just because of preference. I used 1/2 cup instead of one.
hello! can these cookies be made in advance and frozen? if so, do you have a recommended amount of time they can be frozen, without the filling?
thank you!
Oh absolutely, Stephannie! I would probably freeze them for up to two weeks (for the best flavor). Happy new year!