Christmas baking recipes

Soft and sweet Christmas biscuits

Before you begin, preheat your oven to gas 4, 180°C, fan 160°C. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper and set aside.
To a bowl, add 225g of self-raising flour, the zest of 1 orange, ½ tsp of mixed spice, 115g of golden caster sugar and 115g of cubed, unsalted butter. Rub together until the mixture starts to resemble fine breadcrumbs.
Once ready, add 1 beaten egg and mix into a stiff dough. Bring together with your hands into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
When ready to bake, roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 5mm thick. Cut out a mixture of shapes, such as stars, Christmas trees, snowmen or snowflakes with cookie cutters. Bring any leftover dough together again, roll out and cut out further shapes. Transfer to the prepared baking sheets and chill for 10 mins until firm.
Once you’re happy with how your biscuits look, pop into the oven and bake for 10-12 mins (check after 8 mins if your shapes are small) or until pale golden. Once cooked, transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely. The biscuits can be eaten plain, dusted with icing sugar, or try some colourful decorations.
If you’d like to ice your biscuits, add 200g of icing sugar into a bowl and add 3 tbsp of water, mix until it forms a thick paste.
Place another 200g of icing sugar in another bowl, add 3 tbsp water and the red gel food colouring and mix together to make a bold red colour.
Put the red icing in a piping bag with a small plain nozzle (or spoon into a sandwich bag and snip the corner off to make a small hole). Pipe lines around some of the cooled biscuits to make borders or snowflake patterns. Leave to set briefly. To flood the middles, add a spoonful of the white icing inside the borders and allow the icing to spread to the edges. Decorate with silver and gold balls and stars, as you like.
If you’d like some different designs, roll out some green and red fondant icing on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar to 5mm thickness. Cut out shapes and use to decorate the remaining biscuits. Secure the fondant icing with a little runny white icing. Leave to set completely before serving. The finished biscuits will keep for up to a week in an airtight container.
Tip: Get ahead by freezing your biscuit dough. Make the dough, roll into a flat disc, wrap in clingfilm and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost fully before using.
Freezing and defrosting guidelines (dough only): In order to enjoy optimum flavour and quality, frozen items are best used within 3 months of their freezing date.