Christmas Biscuits

The team from the Severnside Skills at Taurus Crafts have shared a yummy festive biscuit recipe with us. The biscuits make perfect presents and they can also be made into Christmas tree decorations too! Enjoy.

Makes 36

Ingredients

• 100g Unsalted Butter (softened at room temperature)
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 1 Large Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 275g Plain Flour (if using gluten-free flour, add 1 tsp of Xanthan Gum)
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Orange (zested)

To decorate

• 400g of Icing Sugar
• 3-4 tbsp of cold water
• Food colouring as desired
• Decorations as desired

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 fan/190c/Gas mark 5.
2. Line the required baking trays with greaseproof paper.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until pale in colour, light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the egg, orange zest and vanilla extract, a little at the time until well combined (if the mixture starts to split, add a spoonful of the sieved flour)
5. Using a large metal spoon, fold in the sieved flour and cinnamon (and xanthan gum if gluten-free flour used) until the mixture comes together as a dough ( you may want to swap to using your hands as the mixture gets firmer)
6. Lightly flour your work surface.
7. Using a rolling pin, roll out the biscuit dough to a thickness of 1 cm.
8. Use your biscuit cutters to cut your desired shapes out of the dough and carefully place on the lined baking trays.  If you would like to make your biscuits into Christmas tree decorations, carefully make a hole in the top of your biscuits using a straw.
9. Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes, or until pale golden brown.
   Set aside on the tray to harden for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool
10. For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl.
    Add a little cold water a time, stirring in well until you create a smooth mixture.
11. If you would like to colour the icing separate the icing into the required amount of colours that you would like to use.  Add a little spot of colours and stir in, adding more until you get the colour that you would like.
12. Carefully spread the icing onto the biscuits using a teaspoon.  Decorate and set aside to harden.
13. If you’re making the biscuits into tree decorations then add ribbon once the icing has hardened.