When I was growing up, one of my favourite treats was the Arnott’s Spicy Fruit Roll – a buttery shortbread biscuit wrapped around a dried fruit filling. These easy cookies are very reminiscent of those, and I find them incredibly moreish!
These delightfully named Pebbly Beach Fruit Squares come from Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies – the latest addition to my cookbook library, and an absolute treasure trove of interesting recipes. I’ve added metric measures for the ingredients, as I always prefer to use scales when I bake.
- 240g (8.5oz) plain (AP) flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 125g (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
- 150g (¾ cup) sugar
- 1 large (59g) egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground anise (or grated lemon rind, or ground cinnamon)
- 1 cup moist dried fruit – I used a mix of blueberries, candied orange peel, golden raisins, finely chopped Persian figs and cranberries
- raw or demerara sugar, for sprinkling (I used raw caster sugar, as I couldn’t find my demerara!)
1. Mix the dried fruit together, breaking up any lumps with your fingers.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until combined (but not fluffy), then add the egg, vanilla and ground anise (or lemon rind or cinnamon) and mix well. Then add the flour mixture, and beat until combined.
4. Divide the dough into two, flatten it out and wrap well in clingfilm, then refrigerate for at least two hours, or overnight.
5. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and allow it to rest before rolling out. Preheat oven to 175C (350F) with fan.
6. Between two sheets of parchment, roll out one piece of dough until it forms a large thin rectangle – the original recipe specifies dimensions of 8½” x 16½”, but mine wasn’t quite that big. Carefully peel off the top sheet of parchment.
7. Scatter half the dried fruit mixture over half of the dough.
8. Using the parchment paper, carefully fold the other half of the dough over to enclose the fruit. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour and flip it back over onto the parchment, so that you can gently loosen the paper from the other side.
9. Scatter the top of the dough with raw or demerara sugar. Trim the edges, and then cut into 16 pieces.
10. Lay the cookies onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper, and repeat with the remaining dough and fruit. Bake the cookies for 12 – 15 minutes (mine took 15 minutes) or until lightly golden brown, rotating the pan(s) once during the baking time.
11. Allow to cool on a wire rack, and then store in an airtight container. Try not to scoff them all at once!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
i’m not going to let Brian see these. He would want them everyday ;)
I can see myself having these too…
These look like something I would find every opportunity to nibble!
Only I might add a little icing on top!
Yum! :)
I can taste these from digging into my memory banks! I am going to have to bake my way through your blog when I am on leave :)
Lovely mix of fruit inside – it would be a nice surprise after biting through the plain outside biscuit.
I used to love those too, although I think I used to love the pastry the most. Thanks for the recipe and a reminder of a few childhood memories!
I have this book, must get it out again and check out this recipe. It is always nice to have something recommended and also to see step by step pictures of the making of them. Thanks, Celia.
Joanna, I think Brian would adore these! The only thing that’s stopped them from becoming a cookie jar staple at our house is that I can’t stop eating them! :)
Norma, they’re really good, and I think they’d work well with almost any mix of dried fruit!
Heidi, they’re already quite sweet – there’s supposed to be crystallised sugar all over the tops, but I ran out.. :)
Tandy, isn’t it such a strong taste memory? It’s not even 7am, and just thinking about these, I can taste them.. :)
Suelle, thank you – the ground anise gives a lovely spice to the dough, although Pete asked me to use lemon rind instead next time…
Mrs Bok, they were such a fave at our place when I was growing up. I also made figgy rolls in the past which were quite similar as well..
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/03/25/figgy-rolls/
Jeannette, mine don’t look nearly as pretty as Ms Medrich’s, but they tasted wickedly good – it’s a great recipe! I’ve really enjoyed strolling through that book – lots of great ideas there, and not all chocolate based! Thanks also for letting me know you enjoyed the friands – so glad they worked for you! :)
The fruit in the middle idea reminds me of fig newton bars. These look a little easier to make than fig bars so I’ll probably give them a try. I made Marty’s Triathalon cookies yesterday and they were well received. Very yummy!!
Melanie, I’m glad you liked Marty’s cookies – they’re very popular here at the moment! The figgy rolls are a bit fiddly, but closer to the bikkies (cookies) of my childhood.. :)
i love the photo of these..they look so beautiful on the wire rack..i can tell just looking at them that they would be delicious..jane
Jane, thank you! They were very addictive – this whole batch was eaten in just a couple of days!
This is just the recipe I need! :) I have 3/4 of a tub of candied fruit in my fridge from making sweet buns that I didn’t know what to do with. And now I do. Thanks again Celia!
Oh wow they do look easy. I’m not a fan of dried fruit but I could imagine walnuts and cinnamon sugar would be lovely. Yum!
There goes the diet. Again!
I received my copy of this book in the post yesterday – I’ll be drooling over it in front of the fire this afternoon!
I loved spicy fruit roll when I was a kid, despite being told that they had squashed flies in them. I’ll definitely be giving these a go.
Wow, there’s no way that the shop bought biscuits have those fancy-pants dried fruits in them! No wonder they’re so scoffable! Yumm….
Oooh, how nice are they!
I loved the ‘pillow biscuits’ by Arnotts as a kid. Then I found out (?!?) that they contained sultanas and that was the end of it for me! Funny how prejudices of the mind can sway your enjoyment of something!
All hail Alice Medrich. I have not got her Cookie book but it sounds like I should invest!
Cat and Claire, I think you could put almost any filling you wanted in these, but be aware that the pastry is quite thin, so you might want to make sure any hard fillings (like nuts) are well-chopped.
Lee, my apologies.. :)
Deb, squashed flies!!! It’s all coming back to me now! :)
Amanda, isn’t it just the best book? Did you get your copy of THL as well?
Becca, thank you, they are a bit fancy-pants. The short dough is a perfect foil to the fruit too!
Shelley, that’s funny – Deb in an earlier comment reminded me about how kids at school used to say the spicy fruit rolls were filled with squashed flies. Didn’t put me off though.. ;-)
Gillian, all hail you, for putting me onto Alice Medrich in the first place! I actually like her cookie book even better than Bittersweet!
Spicy Fruit rolls were my absolute favourite packet of biscuits as a kid. A birthday present of these and only these and I was a happy girl. I reaallllly don’t know if I can be trusted to make them though….whole batch gone, before The Monkeys would have a chance to say “what’s that Mama”?…it’s going to be tough!
Brydie, I’m tossing up whether or not I can make them again either – I think I ate most of them myself! Dangerous cookies, indeed.. :)
Do you think these cookies could be made with a jam filling? Or do you think the halves would go their separate ways? Or maybe a little jam and a little fruit?
Ahhhh I thought you were talking the actual pebbly beach, so many fond memories. But these look delish too, I shall have a crack at them ASAP me thinks. :))))
Moo, the pastry is quite fine – not sure how it would hold up with the jam? But very nice idea.. :)
Anna, you’re too funny girl.. :)
Wow, what great looking biscuits, they sound like an upmarket version of squashed flies. Pebbly beach fruit squares sound a bit more appetising ;-)
Choc, it does sound and taste better, but the squashed flies were pretty good! ;-)