🍪 Christmas biscuits to decorate with kids (easy recipe)
Prep: 30 min · Cook: 10 min · Makes: about 24 biscuits
These are the biscuits to make on a cold Saturday in December, with the radio on and flour on everyone's nose. The dough is soft enough for small hands but firm enough that a star still looks like a star when it comes out of the oven.
Make one batch to eat and one to give away: a few iced biscuits in a paper bag with a ribbon make a lovely present for grandparents, teachers or the neighbours.
Tips for little helpers
- Under-5s: let them stir, roll and choose the cutters. A grown-up handles the oven.
- Squeeze bottles or a sandwich bag with a tiny corner snipped off are easier than piping bags.
- Put the sprinkles in a deep tray so most of them land where they should.
- Re-roll the scraps once. After that the dough gets tough, so turn the last bits into "snowball" biscuits by rolling them into little balls.
Ideas for decorating
- Christmas jumpers: cut a jumper shape, ice it in one colour, then add zigzags and dots.
- Snowy trees: green icing, then a sprinkle of desiccated coconut for snow.
- Name tags: a plain round biscuit with a name piped on makes a place card for Christmas dinner.
Variations
- Gingery: add 2 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp cinnamon with the flour.
- Orange: add the finely grated zest of an orange with the egg.
- Chocolate: swap 25 g of the flour for cocoa powder.
Ingredients
- 125 g unsalted butter, soft
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 275 g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
- a pinch of salt
- 250 g icing sugar, for the icing
- 2-3 tbsp water or lemon juice, for the icing
- food colouring gels and sprinkles, to decorate
Method
- Beat the butter and caster sugar together in a big bowl with a wooden spoon (or an electric whisk) until pale and creamy. Little arms can take turns.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat again until smooth.
- Tip in the flour and salt and stir until it starts to clump, then use your hands to squash it into a ball of dough.
- Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap it and chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes so it is easier to roll and keeps its shape in the oven.
- Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas mark 4) and line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Roll the dough out on a floured worktop to about 5 mm thick. Let the children cut out shapes and lay them on the trays, a little apart.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, until just golden at the edges. A grown-up takes the trays out. Leave the biscuits on the tray for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the water a little at a time until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Split it into small bowls and colour each one.
- Spread or pipe the icing on the cold biscuits, add sprinkles straight away, and leave to set for about an hour.
Questions
Can I make the dough ahead?
Yes. Wrapped well, the dough keeps in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for a month. Let it soften for 10 minutes before rolling.
How long do the iced biscuits keep?
In an airtight tin, about a week. Let the icing set fully before stacking them with baking paper between the layers.
Can I make holes to hang them on the tree?
Poke a hole near the top with a straw before baking, then thread a ribbon through once they are cold and iced.