Sparkly Christmas Biscuits
Preparation time: 30-40 minutes, plus chilling time and decoration time
Cooking time: 15 -20 minutes
Ingredients:
2 level tbsp Lyles Golden
Syrup
75g unsalted butter
50g Tate & Lyle Fairtrade Caster Sugar
1 tsp grated orange zest
250g self raising flour
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
1 level tsp ground ginger
50 g ground almonds
1 medium free-range egg, beaten
75g unsalted butter
50g Tate & Lyle Fairtrade Caster Sugar
1 tsp grated orange zest
250g self raising flour
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
1 level tsp ground ginger
50 g ground almonds
1 medium free-range egg, beaten
To decorate:
225g Tate & Lyle
Fairtrade Icing Sugar
5-6 tsp orange juice
Silver balls or sprinkles
5-6 tsp orange juice
Silver balls or sprinkles
Method:
Put the Lyle’s Golden Syrup into a small pan with the butter, sugar and orange zest. Put over a low heat and stir until the butter has melted, remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Sieve the flour with the spices into a large bowl, stir in the ground almonds. Add the butter mixture and egg and mix until the dough comes together. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4, grease two baking sheets.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 5mm and cut out stars or Christmas shapes as wished. Lift them onto the baking sheets with a fish slice or large palette knife. And bake for 15 minutes until they are just beginning to brown at the edges. Gather up the scraps of dough, knead again and reroll and cut out as many shapes as possible.
Remove the cooked biscuits from the oven, while they are still warm, take a plastic straw and make holes in the cookies so a ribbon can be threaded through to hang the Christmas tree. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
To decorate, put the icing sugar in a bowl and add the orange juice to make a thick icing. Either drizzle over the cookies or spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle and pipe dots or outline the edge. Add silver balls or sprinkles as wished.
