Christmas biscuit recipes please

[aznerak]

I am a keen and proficient baker but have volunteered to make biscuits for the Christmas party at my daughter's play school.

I can include any nuts of any sort so need a biscuit dough that keeps its shape when cooking.

I guess I'll do christmas trees and stars unless anyone has a better idea. I did stained glass windows a previous time with melted boiled sweets as the glass but I think the children are too young for those as some are still 2.

Any help most appreciated!

Oh, all good ideas. I've done the boiled sweet stainglass. Also have done a variation of jammy dodgers using marshmallows and a figure of eight instead of a circl. So snowmen basically!

Oh there are so many.

Sorry can you Include or Exclude nuts! Just wanted to be sure.

No nuts please!
Great idea for snowmen!

Hang on.

I'll be right back with a reciepy.

The other thing is to make up a biscuit mix and divid it into 3, colour each batch a different coulour. Maybe, red, green and leave one plain. Roll out into sausages and then pile them up together and wrap in cling film.

When they have chilled cut into slices and pierce a hole in the top. Cook and then decorate with ribbon. They look really pretty hanging in the tree. Not that they last long enough.

Ok this is great one if you have a piping bag.

1/2 lb butter or margarine
1/4 lb powder sugar
Vanilla to taste approx. 2 Tablespoons
1 lemon zest
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
3/4 lb flour
2 oz cornstarch

Mix all ingredients. Using a pastry bag with a star tip pipe cookies in the shape of an "S" onto a sheet pan covered with panliner (parchment paper).
Bake at 350 F for approximately 10 minutes.

Cookies may be dipped halfway into melted chocolate or filled with jam or truffle cream.

But as its xmas why not do a piped star or an "S" dipped in white chocolate and call the santa biscuits.

You need a rolling pin, a grater and a little bit of patience for this recipe, as well as all the usual stuff, but the results will take you to biccy heaven.

Ingredients

350g or 12oz Plain flour
25g or 1oz Dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
Grated rind of 1 lemon or orange (if using a lemon, use the juice for pancakes)
175g or 6oz butter, softened
300g or 10.5oz caster sugar (that's not confectioner's sugar but sugar which is a bit finer than standard granulated sugar)
1 egg, beaten
Method

Preheated oven, 190°C or 375°F or Gas Mark 5

Grease baking tray.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Gradually add the beaten egg to the creamed mixture, beating well.

Sieve the flour into the creamed mixture and mix until you get a soft dough.

Transfer half of the dough to another bowl and beat in the cooled melted chocolate.

Stir the grated citrus rind into the other half of the plain dough.

On a lightly-floured surface, roll out the 2 pieces of dough to form rectangles of the same size.

Lay the citrus dough on top of the chocolate dough.

Roll up the dough tightly into a sausage shape. A sheet of baking parchment can help.

Leave the dough to chill in the refrigerator for at least half an hour.

Cut the roll into about 40 slices and place them on the baking trays. (Cook the ends and edges too, don't be fussy, they taste just as good, just watch out for them getting done earlier than the rest.)

Bake in your preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Transfer the pinwheels to a wire rack and scoff before anyone else can get to them.

If you're feeling a little domestically stressed, the kids' tantrums are wearing you down and you want to vent some steam, why not try the following recipe? It's a sure fire way of calming down the most rampant temper...

Ingredients

1 cup Light brown sugar
1 cup Margarine
1 cup All-purpose flour
2 cups Rolled oats
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
Method

Mix all ingredients together like pie crust until soft.

Flatten 1-inch balls of dough on an ungreased baking tray using the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in brown sugar.

Bake in a moderate oven for 10 minutes.

The aggression comes out when you flatten them!

all brill, thanks. And the snowmen recipe (like jammy dodgers)???

I tried to post this earlier but for some reason it didn't appear! I made these for school and cut them out in Christmassy shapes using cookie cutters. They were soooo delish and went like, er, hot cakes! Recipe courtesy of Nigella, how to be a domestic goddess. (Oh, how I wish I was!)

Butter Cut Out Biscuits

175g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g plain flour, pref Italian 00, plus more if needed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
300g icing sugar, sieved, and food coloring

Biscuit cutters

Preheat oven to 180c. Cream the butter & sugar together until pale & moving towards mousiness, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder & salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, and mix gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add more flour but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough. Halve the dough, form into fat discs, wrap each half in plastic wrap & rest in the fridge for at least an hour. Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place a disc of dough on it (not taking out the other half until finished with the first) and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Then roll it out to about ½ cm thickness. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the biscuits a little apart on baking trays lined with baking paper.

Bake for 8-2 minutes, by which time they will be lightly golden around the edges. Cool on a rack and continue with the rest of the dough. When they?re all fully cooled, you can get on with the icing. Put a couple of tablespoon of just not boiling water into a large bowl, add the icing sugar & mix together, adding more water as needed to form a thick paste. Color as desired. Makes 50-60.

Oh that is so simple. Its a 1,2,3 shortbread

Ingredients
125g/2oz butter
55g/1oz caster sugar
180g/3oz plain flour

Method

1. Heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
2. Beat the butter and the sugar together until pale.
3. Stir in the flour to get a smooth paste. Turn on to a work surface and gently roll out until the paste is 1cm/½in thick.
4. Cut into rounds or fingers and sprinkle with a little extra caster sugar. Put on a baking sheet and chill for 20 minutes. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until pale golden. Cool on a wire rack

Just cut them into figures of eight. you will need to jammy dodgers, just cut missing bits out of half of them. Cook and then fill with what ever you like, like jam, soften marshmallows, etc then sandwich together.

why do you have to chill the dough or biscuits before cooking them?

Otherwise it is a nightmare to cut into shapes and falls apart.

Ive just been doing gingerbread over and over with a fab recipe from the You magazine a few weeks ago. Love all these, thankyou.

chrimbo cooking is wonderful, esp with a 2yr old 'helping'

ps what is a 'moderate' oven with a fan oven? about 180/170 ish? (gas 5 ish)?

anyone got a good liebcuckhen (oops sp)
recipe? those german star biscuits?

HSFAY - See i can understand chilling the dough for that reason but I have seen some recipes where it tells you to cut out the shapes and then chill them before cooking.