Gypsy creams: How to make them at home!

My grandmother’s ultimate recipe for your own homemade Gypsy Creams, the famous biscuit of the 70s

I love weekends with something sweet, tea, and some quality time.

This weekend, I was going through the old pictures of my family. There, I found my little self with my grandmother enjoying a little tea party. What I saw there on the table took me back to my childhood.

There was my heart favorite, Gypsy cream.

Suddenly, my taste buds started to crave for them so badly.

I searched all over the internet and at any possible store. But there was not even a glimpse of them. Then I found out that McVities no longer makes Gypsy cream.

My heart sank with disappointment. I wanted to delve into the deliciousness of gypsy cream to relive my childhood.

Then, I decided to have it on my own. So I rolled up my sleeves and dug deep down my grandmother’s recipe book.

Dang! There I found my dream recipe. Yes, you guessed it right.

It was the recipe of homemade Gypsy creams.

So I rolled up my sleeves and checked my pantry. I had some of the ingredients and was short on a few of them.

I instantly ran to the market to grab all the missing ingredients and initiated my sweet dream into reality.

After the hard labor of 45 minutes, there it was. My home-made version of the long lost Gypsy creams.

They were so scrumptious, crispy, and sweet to the perfect. My weekend was made with eating my childhood favorite cookie at the ease of my home.

What are gypsy creams?

So if you don’t know what are Gypsy creams or you haven’t got a chance to eat them. Let me introduce them to you

Gypsy creams were made by McVitie’s. It is a UK-based brand who is making amazing biscuits and cookies in the UK since 1839. It came in a 200g red packaging.

This was made from two round-topped chocolate-colored biscuits that were sandwiched with chocolate cream cheese filling. These were the most addictive, buttery, and crispy biscuits that I ever had to date.

About the name, if you search on the internet, you will find the Gypsy spelled with “Y” but the images of the original packaging and my memory recall it with an “I” on the wrapper.

Anyway, as it is not ethical to call a biscuit “gypsy” but as it is a retro recipe so we have to call it the same name.

Lastly, they were produced in 2005 by the company. Then they stopped making them for some unknown reason.

What is so special about gypsy cream?

Gipsy creams were the perfect kind of biscuits to satisfy your taste buds. They were strong enough to have a good dunk in the tea.

Recipe for Gypsy creams

Gypsy cream lovers! Don’t be sad. If they are not produced now so what, we can make it at home.

Here I am going to represent you with the hand-crafted recipe of my grandmother. With this recipe, you can achieve almost the perfect taste of Gypsy creams, which are no longer available.

Here you go,

Preparation time: 10minutes

Bake time: depends on the size of your biscuits (Average 15 minutes)

Makes: 14 biscuits

Ingredients

Butter 4 Oz ( if softened then ½ cup )
Vegetable shortening 2 Oz ( 1/4cup )
Sugar 6 Oz ( 1 cup )
Plain all-purpose flour 8 Oz ( 1 1/3 cup )
Rolled oats
Baking soda 1 t.Sp.
Baking powder 1 t. Sp.
Vanilla essence ¼ tb. Sp.
Cocoa powder 2 Tb. Sp.
Golden syrup 2 t. Sp.
Boiling water 6 t. Sp.

Filling

Butter 2 Oz
Cocoa powder 1-2 Tb. Sp.
Icing sugar 4 Oz
Milk 1 Tb. Sp.

Method

First, preheat the oven to 325F.
Cream the butter, white sugar, and vegetable shortening together until it is fluffy.
Add in the golden syrup, boiling water, and vanilla essence and beat it until mixed properly.
In another bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder.
Add this to the creamed mixture and mix until combined.
Lastly, add the rolled oats and mix well.
Roll the dough into small balls (about 2t.sp. of dough in each).
Grease your baking tray and place the balls leaving some space in between for the biscuits to spread.
Flatten the balls slightly with a knife or a fork.
Bake the biscuits for almost 12minutes, until golden.
Leave the biscuits on the baking tray for some time then shift them on a wire rack to cool down.

For filling

While your biscuits are being cooled down, let’s make the filling

First, cream the butter until it is fluffy.
Now gradually add in the milk, icing sugar, and cocoa powder.
Mix until perfectly combined.

Sandwich two biscuits together with 1t.sp. of the filling.

Store the biscuits in a tightly covered or airtight container.

*Avoid over-mixing of the better as it makes the biscuits tough and chewy.

*Add the dry ingredients gradually to the batter to mix them perfectly.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a recipe to bake something sweet and unique to tingle your taste buds, do try this recipe and become an instant hit in your circle.

As for me, they are now an absolute favorite having missed out for nearly 15 years.

Amidst all the diversity of biscuits, I can vouch for this classic recipe of Gypsy cream, that you have never eaten anything like this. You are surely going to fall in love at your first bite.

FAQs

1: Are gypsy cream biscuits still made?

A: No, McVitie’s no longer makes Gypsy Creams. However, they resembling biscuits are still popular in Australia made by Baker’s called Kingston.

2: What happened to gypsy cream?

A: There is no apparent reason for their discontinuity. The company stopped making them in 2005. 3 years later, they announced to continue the production, but not been done until now.

3: Can we make them with buttercream frosting?

A: Yes, for that do not add cocoa powder to the filling mixture. Or you can follow the buttercream recipe.