Iced Christmas Biscuits
When a Biscuiteer catalogue arrived through my letterbox I was enchanted by the beautifully crafted iced Christmas biscuits.
Inspired by the colourful collections I decided to set about making my own.
The first challenge I encountered was to source some cookie cutters. Scouring the shelves of my local hardware shop I found this box of Stehkekse pastry cutters.
My joy at finding these delightful “stand-up” characters was further confounded when I realised that the price had been reduced!
It was only when I unpacked the box at home I realised that the “easy recipes” were not included. Mmmm… maybe that’s why they were on sale!?
Not to be defeated I retrieved a biscuit recipe that I had saved from December 2008! There was nothing to stop me now.
I purchased the relevant ingredients and got to work.
Ingredients
For the biscuits
- 350g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 100g butter cut into pieces
- 175g lighting muscovado sugar
- 1 large egg beaten
- 4 tbsp golden syrup
For the decoration
- icing sugar
- food colouring
- edible gold or silver coloured balls
- ribbon or Baker’s twine
Method
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F/gas 5
- Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon in a bowl
- Rub in the butter so the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
- Stir in the sugar, add the egg and syrup and mix to form a dough
- Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead to bring the dough together
- Roll out each batch with a lightly floured rolling pin to an even thickness of about 5mm
- Create shapes with the biscuit cutters
- Make a hole in the top of each with a skewer if you want to hang the biscuits as decorations
- Place on a greased baking try and bake for about 10 minutes
- Remove and allow to cool on a wire rack
To make the icing
- Add water to the icing sugar and mix to a smooth consistency
- Ice biscuits using a piping bag for simple decorative lines and edgings
- Add a drop of food colouring to separate batches to make contrasting details
To finish
- Before the icing sets add the edible balls as eyes or buttons
- Place a biscuit support under each biscuit if you wish them to stand up
- Alternatively, reopen any holes that have closed during baking to allow for ribbon or twine to be attached
- Store in a biscuit tin or a glass Kilner jar, or hang as decorations
The end result was definitely not a patch on the Biscuiteer‘s seasonal fare but they looked very pretty and tasted absolutely delightful.
They certainly went down well with the guests, and I don’t mean just the children.
Top Tip
Use Baker’s twine or skinny ribbon to hang biscuits as decorations.
I cut-out the hanging ribbons from new jumpers as they are ideal for this purpose.
Happy Christmas!
📸 Carolyn Hayter
