September 17, 2015 By hotlyspiced 37 Comments
If there’s ever a biscuit that brings out nostalgic feelings in an Aussie, it’s the Iced VoVo. Yes, the other one on the nostalgia list is the Tim Tam but for today, we’re talking about Iced VoVos.
Iced VoVo Biscuits
Back in my school days, there were a lot of lunch boxes that contained Iced VoVos and if they weren’t in your lunch box they were there for you when you came home and walked through the front door looking for afternoon tea.
Make a template 5cm x 4cm
For a while I’ve been wanting to see if I could create a homemade version of Arnott’s famous biscuit with its fluffy pink marshmallow on the sides sprinkled with desiccated coconut with a raspberry jam stripe down the centre.
Ready for the oven
It’s been fun here in the kitchen the last couple of days and having now created a homemade version of the Iced VoVo, I can say the homemade version is definitely superior to the packet version.
Just out of the oven
But there’s a lot more work involved here than popping off to the supermarket and putting the bought variety in your trolley. I made these over two days. I made the biscuits (cookies) first, then topped them with the marshmallow and coconut and jam the following day.
Pipe the marshmallow, then sprinkle with coconut
I can confirm there is a lot of mess involved – I was actually on my hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor twice after flour and coconut flew around the room. And then there’s the benches that become covered with every ingredient including sticky marshmallow and jam.
Pipe the jam after the marshmallow and coconut
You will also need two piping bags of different sizes. I bought a large disposable bag for the marshmallow and had a wide star nozzle on the end for the piping. The jam needs the other piping bag and it also requires a fairly wide nozzle otherwise the raspberry pips will clog your nozzle.
So these are a little fiddly, a wee bit time-consuming, and you’ll need to hose your kitchen out afterwards. But that’s the only bad news there is – the good news is that these biscuits are definitely worth it. If you’re having an Aussie celebration you should put these iconic biscuits on your list of ‘must-make’. Or even if you just want to have a lovely treat ready for when your kids come home from school, these biscuits are a guaranteed hit. And I think they’re very pretty too.
Marshmallow, coconut and raspberry jam on a biscuit
4.9 from 7 reviews
Iced VoVo Biscuits
Author:Hotly Spiced - inspired by a recipe found on kidrecipes.com.au
Recipe type:Biscuits/Cookies
Cuisine:Australian
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves:40
An Iced VoVo biscuit/cookie that's edged with stripes of marshmallow covered in coconut and with a stripe of raspberry jam down the centre.
Ingredients
- 125g butter, softened
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1⅓ cups plain flour
- 1⅓ cups self-raising flour
- For the marshmallow:
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1½ tbspn gelatine
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pink food colouring
- To decorate:
- 1 cup raspberry jam
- ½ cup desiccated coconut
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 180C (375F).
- Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
- Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between additions. Add vanilla and mix to combine.
- Stir in the flours.
- Lightly dust surface with flour and turn dough onto surface. Knead gently until smooth (about a minute).
- Roll out dough to about 4mms thick.
- Make a template 4cm x 5cm. (I used a thick piece of cardboard). Use the template to guide the size of each biscuit. Cut around the template and make 40 biscuits.
- Place biscuits on baking trays and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on trays before shifting to a wire rack.
- For the marshmallow:
- Place sugar and water and gelatine in a small saucepan over low heat. Whisk lightly to ensure there are no lumps in the gelatine. Bring to the boil then allow to simmer for 3-4 minutes.
- Remove from heat and place in a mix master. Allow to cool (about 30 minutes).
- When cool, beat at high speed until the volume has significantly increased and the marshmallow is light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract and pink colouring.
- To assemble:
- Place marshmallow into a large piping bag with a wide star nozzle. Working quickly (because the marshmallow sets quickly), pipe the biscuits along each long side with marshmallow. Sprinkle piped marshmallow with coconut and shake off excess. Using a smaller piping bag with a smaller nozzle, place jam in piping bag and pipe a raspberry jam stripe down the centre of each biscuit.
- Store biscuits in an air-tight container.
- And now for the clean-up...
An Aussie classic
