Christmas tree biscuits

By Amy Sinclair

These green Christmas tree biscuits look fantastic, and will keep kids busy. Help them cook their biscuits, then set them up for a fun afternoon of decorating!

Ingredients:

• 1 quantity of biscuit dough (see below)
• 330 g packet royal icing mix
• liquid green food colouring, to tint
• 2 musk flavoured semi-soft candy stick (as close to yellow as possible)
• white icing pen, to decorate
• sugar mimosa balls or red sugar pearls, to decorate

Biscuit dough:

• 250 g unsalted butter, chopped at room temperature
• ⅔ cup caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 ¼ cups plain flour
• ¼ tsp baking powder

Method:

1. To make dough: beat butter, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Transfer to a large bowl. Add combined sifted flour and baking powder. Stir until well combined. Turn out onto a lightly floured bench. Bring together to form a soft dough. Divide in half. Wrap each portion in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm, before using.
2. Roll out each portion of biscuit dough between two sheets of baking paper until ½cm thick.
3. Using a 13cm Christmas tree cutter, cut out 14 shapes, re-rolling dough as necessary. Arrange 4cm apart on two large oven trays lined with baking paper.
4. Cook in a moderately slow oven (160C) for about 15 minutes, or until lightly golden. Stand biscuits on trays for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. Place icing in a medium bowl. Following directions on packet, gradually stir in 40-50ml of water until a spreadable consistency. Tint with colouring.
6. Cut musk sticks crossways into thin slice to represent stars.
7. One at a time, spread icing evenly over biscuits. Decorate with writing icing, red sugar pearls and stars, as pictured. Stand at room temperature until set.

This article first appeared on New Idea Food and has been republished with permission.