23 Mar 2018

Easter Biscuits

Today, we're all about biscuits and we're in the baking kinda mood. We love cute cookies with icing and we're obsessed with those therapeutic videos online (if only we were that good as icing). These Easter egg biscuits give you two options to choose from, you can either make complete iced biscuits or jammy. Even better, both?!

You will need:
(Makes 18)

Instructions

(Image credit: Schwartz) 

Firstly, weigh out the flour and sugar in a bowl and add the butter. Rub with your fingertips until the mixture is like wet sand with no significant butter lumps. Beat the egg with the vanilla and add to the bowl. Now knead the dough together, however, don't overdo it because the biscuits will be tough. 

Shape the dough into a disc and then wrap clingfilm over the top and leave for about 15 minutes or more. Heat the oven to 180C (gas mark 4) and line two baking trays with parchment paper. 

Now flour a work surface and separate the dough in half. Roll one half out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Using an egg-shaped cookie cutter, stamp out as many cookies as you can and transfer them to one baking tray, leaving some space between each cookie. Repeat this step with the other half of the dough. If you want to make the jammy biscuits, use a small circular cutter to stamp holes in half of the biscuits (where the yolk would be). If you want to get fancy and make both kinds, only stamp holes in a quarter of the cookies. 

Now pop into the oven for 12-15 minutes until they have turned a pale gold. Leave them to cool completely. 

DECORATION TIME, THE FUN BIT! To decorate the biscuits with icing, add water to the icing sugar to make a thick mixture. It should hold its shape without spreading when piped. Transfer about a third of the icing to a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle or snip a tiny bit off the corner of the bag. Pipe an outline around the biscuits and then draw patterns in the middle, get creative. Spots, swirls, zigzags, you name it! Leave them to dry for about 10 minutes. Then divide the remaining icing between as many colours you'd like to use, then use the gels to dye them (you could also use food colouring). Add a few drops of water to each colour of icing and then transfer to piping bags. Use the coloured icing to colour the eggs in; you may need to use a cocktail stick to tease the corners. Then leave to set completely for a few hours. 

(Image credit: aheadofthyme.com) 

To make the jammy middle, dust the biscuits with holes in the middle with a coating of icing sugar (it needs to be thick, pretend it's snowing!).  Spread the jam or curd generously over the whole biscuits and sandwich the dusted cookies on top of them. Perfection.

Slightly complicated, but definitely worth it. If you're up for a challenge during Easter or feel creative, then these are perfect. Even better when they keep the kids entertained! You could even get creative and make those polka dots come to life by using Gookie Dough balls. Yum!  

*Recipe credit goes to BBC Good Food*