Christmas Spice Biscuits
Christmas is one of those times where everyone seems to loves tradition and that includes a lot of the treat foods you associate with your own childhood festivities. I still remember the year my clever and creative sister made a gingerbread house which took pride of place on the china cabinet. Mum always made the Edmonds cookbook Belgium Biscuits which we stuck together with homemade jam and had a lot of fun icing. I have done it with my own children and still do- even thought they are all grown up. The smell of the cookies baking definitely brings back good memories for me and I hope they do for you.
This is my version of the classic Belgium Biscuit recipe. It is a double size so you get enough done in one session to make some for your tins and some to give away. I prefer a slightly crisp less cakey biscuit so have only one egg and 1 tsp baking powder in this recipe. This should make 4 trays of biscuits which you can either cook one at a time while you cut the next batch or double up in your oven. Swap trays halfway through cooking if you do double up. Traditionally the biscuits are either spliced together with jam and iced or iced individually. I suggest using a smaller size cutter for the double ones.
Ingredients.
250g butter softened.
150g Brown Sugar
1 egg
4 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsps cinnamon
2 tsps ginger
2 tsps mixed spice
2 tsps cocoa.
Method.
Turn oven on to 180CCream softened butter and sugar then add the egg and beat well.
Sift together the dry ingredients and add a 1/3 of the flour mix at a time to form a dough. If too soft add a little more flour. You don’t want it to be too sticky. .
Tip out onto a floured surface and bring together to form a firm dough.
Divide into 2. Form both into disc shape then wrap one in plastic wrap and pop in fridge until you are ready to roll. Roll the other one to approx 3-4 cm thick. Cut out shapes using your biscuit cutters. Place on a cold tray and bake at 180C for 15 minutes or until cooked. Gently transfer to a rack to cool.
While the first batch is cooking keep cutting the next one ready to go.
When cool you can either decorate individually as a single cookie or put together with jam and ice the top one. I use blackcurrant jam but any berry jam would work.
Icing
You can either ice with butter icing or royal icing or both! This year I iced the base with the butter icing then piped the royal icing on top. Others prefer royal icing which hardens into a more shell like texture. Pipe around the shape first and then infill. Have a cup of hot water handy to dip your spreading knife in to help spread the icing evenly. Have fun decorating!
Butter Icing.
25g butter melted with a little vanilla essence.
1 cup sifted icing sugar
A little boiling water to mix.
Add drop of food colouring.
Royal Icing.
2 egg whites
2 cups sifted icing sugar
Couple of drops of lemon juice.
Beat egg whites until stiff peaks have formed. Add lemon juice then a ittle icing sugar at a time until smoothly combined. This will make your basic white icing. Divide into smaller bowls and add food colouring.
Allow icing to dry completely before packing away.