How to make biscuit dough for cutters! Help!

[TasteTheMeatNotTheHeat]

My daughter loves making biscuits. She likes using the shaped ones - current favourite is her brand new dinosaur shapes. The problem is that my biscuit dough is always so mushy/sticky that I can't get it to cut decent shapes. They just smoosh up as soon as I try and get the cutter off and lift them on to the baking sheet.

I live in an extremely hot part of the world but I do chill my dough in the fridge prior to use, and I have my AC running whilst baking so the room is probably at most only 25°c. I find that by the time it's chilled in the fridge enough to not fall apart and smoosh, it's so hard that I can't even roll it out.

It's driving me crazy, what am I doing wrong?! Any advice would be much appreciated! Or perhaps any magic recipes that make easy to work with dough every time...

I have not made biscuits in that high an ambient temperature, but I would suggest rolling it out before putting in the fridge, then cutting it after it has firmed up, and just before putting in the oven.

Yes, roll it out before you chill it.

Use your cutters to cut all your shapes, then pull up the surplus dough rather than trying to move your biscuits.

You could also try this: use your cutters, then put it back in your fridge to firm up again, then use a knife to remove the surplus.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

Can I ask if anyone has a go to recipe for biscuits using cutters? I have always used the basic biscuit dough from bbcgoodfood but I'm wondering if that's part of the problem. I'm considering trying the Nigella recipe.

I always use this recipe. It's a huge batch but you can cut it down blog.lakeland.co.uk/recipe/vanilla-christmas-cookie-tree/

The other thing I do is roll out the dough between clingfilm. Stops it sticking to the surface

I use gingerbread dough for cutting out shaped biscuits - it’s very forgiving when rolled and rerolled many times.

I refrigerate the dough before rolling then put the biscuits back in for 5-10 mins before cooking to prevent spreading. I also cut them out on the trays (on silicone liners to make it easy to lift off, but otherwise flour the tray lightly).

The recipe I use is by Peggy Porschen. It makes loads so you could half it for making them at home. I also put a lot less ginger in them as I make them for little kids, and add some cinnamon and orange extract instead for a nice flavour without the heat of ginger. You can also sub the black Treacle for more golden syrup if you don’t have any.

recipe

These recipes look great, thank you. I'll try them both!

And that's a good tip about the treacle, ShoeLady - I don't live in the UK anymore and I haven't seen any treacle over here!

Hi, I use nigella's (from the domestic goddess book) and I find they don't stick as you can use a fair bit of flour when rolling out. Tastes good too