Christmas Biscuits

For those of you who have toddlers or young children, here is an awesome recipe to make with your children. Christmas biscuits in all shapes and colours.
My son loved decorating them and seeing them come out of the oven. "All dun", he said, with a broad smile on his face.

They are by far the most delicious biscuit recipe I have found to date. The recipe is from the www.houseandgarden.com.au website under Food and Travel.
The original recipe calls for them to be iced and then decorated, but you can be very creative with this. We simply brushed them with milk and sprinkled them with stars, silver balls and the like before baking them.

Have fun!

Christmas Biscuits:

A glimpse into a heavenly cookie jar!

Ingredients:

2 cups (300g) plain flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
185g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (220g) sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

• Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
• Place butter and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 3 minutes, or until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla, then add flour mixture at low speed. Mix until just combined.
• On a lightly floured surface, form dough into 2 balls, then flatten each into a disc. Wrap discs firmly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 190°C (170°C fan). Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
• Roll out one piece of chilled dough on a lightly floured surface and use biscuit cutters to cut out shapes. Arrange on baking sheets, spaced 2.5cm apart. Brush with milk and sprinkle with silver balls/chocolate vermicelli/stars, on before baking. Bake for 8-10 minutes, switching shelves halfway. Transfer biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely. Allow baking sheets to cool before baking next batch.
• Roll out remaining scraps of dough, cut out shapes and bake 8-10 minutes.
• Sprinkle icing sugar over the cooled biscuits and keep in an airtight container.