Festive Vanilla Biscuits

Festive Vanilla Biscuits are super fun to make, and taste really good, with minimal ingredients. The kids will love helping mum make these! This Recipe can be found in Luci Hirsch’s Mums on the run cookbook.

Makes approximately 36 medium-sized biscuits

Ingredients

125 g icing sugar (150 ml)

250 g soft butter or margarine (250 ml)

375 g cake flour (650 ml)

3 ml vanilla essence

1 large egg-yolk

Method

1. In a large food mixer bowl place icing sugar, vanilla essence, egg-yolk and soft butter or margarine.
2. Mix until well blended.
3. Add in cake flour, and mix until a firm dough is formed.
4. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
5. Preheat oven to 180oC/160oC fan/ Gas mark 4.
6. Knead the chilled dough lightly, and roll out on a floured surface to approximately 4 mm thick.
7. Using different shape cutters, e.g. heart or star cutters, press out shapes of your choice.
8. Place on a baking tray which has been lined with baking paper.
9. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until lightly browned and base is firm.
10. Remove from the baking paper and continue baking the rest of the batch, until all the dough has been used up. Serve plain, or ice with royal or glacé icing, and decorate with silver balls or other decorations of choice.

Tips for Decorating:

• Use royal icing, and place icing into a small piping bag fitted with a nozzle. Decorate biscuits according to your liking (snowflakes, swirls, lines, dots, etc.).
• You can make a hole in each biscuit with a small nozzle or straw before baking. Thread ribbon through the holes; the biscuits may then be hung on a festive tree.
• Roll out coloured fondant icing. Cut with same shape cutter as biscuits. Wet the underside of the fondant and place it on top the of biscuit. Ice as desired.