Another fantastic morning cooking Easter biscuits. You can use this recipe for any occasion and any shaped cutter, the mixture is also delicious with currants added to it. Make sure you take a look at the Star Baker gallery below.
If you can't get plain flour - I also tried these by making my own oat flour. If you whizz 250g oats in a food processor, blender or NutriBullet until fine, it works really well, and they taste like Hobnobs (Harry and I prefer them). You then have an extra 50g for dusting too, also if you can't get any icing sugar, they are delicious spread with melted chocolate.
Biscuits
Makes about 12 - you can make up this dough and then share it out or double it to make more.
What you need:
100g softened butter
75g caster sugar
1 egg yolk, I will show you how to separate an egg
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp vanilla essence or 1/2-1 level tsp ground mixed spice or 1/2-1 level tsp ground cinnamon (all optional)
1-2 tbsp milk
To decorate - you can make icing or cover them with melted chocolate or do both.
125g icing sugar
some water in a jug/small bowl
assorted food colourings
a selection of sweets, smarties, chocolate buttons, sprinkles, any decorations you can get your hands on.
or a bar of chocolate to melt
What to do:
Easter egg template: draw an egg shape on a piece of cardboard and cut out with a pair of scissors. Mine was about 9cm long.
Preheat oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 160°C.
Line 2 baking trays with baking parchment or lightly grease with butter or vegetable oil
To make the biscuits: place the butter and caster sugar in a mixing bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon or an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
Separate the egg and add the yolk - beat together until combined.
Stir in the flour (plain or oat) and enough milk so that it comes together to form a dough. You might find the oat flour needs a little more milk.
Flour your hands and bring the dough together. Squeeze it to form a ball.
Flour the work surface (this is to stop the dough from sticking and a rolling pin). Roll out the dough to thickness of about 1/2cm. Place the egg template on the dough and cut round it using a small sharp knife. Transfer to the baking tray using a palette knife then continue cutting out the shapes.
Squeeze the remaining dough together and continue until it is all used up.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until they look pale and golden.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool. The biscuits will be soft in the middle to start with but will harden as they cool down.
To make the icing: sieve the icing sugar and divide between 2-3 small bowls. Add a few drops of food colouring and add a 1-3 tsp water and mix to form the icing. Add the water very slowly (one teaspoon at a time). If it ends up being a bit runny add more icing sugar.
Using a teaspoon, smooth the icing over the biscuits. If you have one, you can fill a piping bag with the icing to pipe patterns onto your biscuits (put the bag into a glass to make it easier to fill). Decorate with sprinkles and sweets etc.
To melt chocolate: break the chocolate into a bowl set over a pan of simmering water and heat until melted. Remove the bowl from the pan – be careful it might be hot. Spread the chocolate onto the biscuits with a teaspoon.
Cook with Steph Top Tips
Preheat your oven before you start.
Have everything weighed out before you start.
Cream the butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy.
Sieve the flour to add air to it.
Line your baking trays with baking parchment to prevent the biscuits from sticking and to save on the washing up!!
Sieve the icing sugar to remove any lumps.
Use a Bain Marie (a bowl set over a pan of simmering water) to melt the chocolate.
Place your piping bag in a jug or glass to hold it up whilst you fill it with the icing.
STAR BAKES AND BAKERS
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