My Christmas biscuits or cookies are a definite family favourite. They are great if you want to make something with your children to decorate the Christmas tree. But don’t worry they are very tasty too.
Sable Pastry
The recipe is a variety of Sable pastry a rich egg and butter enriched recipe from France. You can use sable pastry for making tart cases, Linzer biscuits and wonderful festive mince pies. The classic central European Christmas recipe Linzer torte is made from a sable pastry. It is filled with jam and topped with a pastry lattice. The word “sable” is French for sand which you will see perfectly describes the grainy texture when you make the biscuits. The end result is a fine crumbly texture.
Decorating your biscuits
You may decorate your biscuits however your choose. It is great fun with my two girls as we have a rather over stocked baking cupboard and they run riot. You can purchase a wide range of decorations now in good supermarkets and speciality baking shops. Alongside old favourites such as hundreds and thousands you can buy edible glitter, gold and silver decorations and many more. You can use royal icing to decorate your finished biscuits if you have some from decorating your Christmas cake. If not you will find a recipe for a basic water icing which is perfectly suitable.
You can find more recipes for festive biscuits and Christmas bakes here. Enjoy.
Christmas Biscuits
Ingredients
- 200 gram Plain Flour sifted
- 100 gram Jersey Butter at room temperature
- 100 gram Golden Caster Sugar
- 75 gram Ground Almonds
- 1 free-range Egg
- 1 Vanilla Pod opened and seeds removed
- 1 teaspoon Almond Essence
TO DECORATE
- 400 gram Icing Sugar sifted
- 3 tablespoon fresh squeezed Lemon juice
- Food Colourings
- Edible Glitter
- Edible Cake Decorations
Instructions
For the Biscuits
- Preheat your oven to 375 F / 190 C / Gas Mark 5 and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy.
- Whisk the egg, vanilla seeds and almond essence together and beat a little at a time into the creamed butter and sugar, until thoroughly mixed. Fold in the flour until the mixture comes together as a dough.
- Sprinkle flour on to a work surface and carefully roll out the biscuit dough to about 1cm thick. Cut the biscuits using cutter shapes of your choice and carefully place onto the baking tray.
- To make into Christmas tree decorations, make a hole in the top of the biscuit. Place in the oven and bake for 8 – 10 minutes, or until pale golden-brown.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes then transfer onto wire rack.
For the Icing
- Place the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir in sufficient lemon juice to make a smooth, thick but workable icing. Stir in the food colouring if you want to at this stage.
- Carefully spread the icing onto the biscuits using a small knife and sprinkle over the decorations. Put to one side and leave until the icing hardens.
Notes
Please see the Allergens Page
So pretty!