Wrap these biscuits in small cellophane bags tied with a bow, or arrange them in boxes and tins for original Christmas presents. If you don’t have a Christmas tree cookie cutter, use a stencil and cut out your biscuits with the tip of a knife.
Christmas tree biscuits
Wrap these biscuits in small cellophane bags tied with a bow, or arrange them in boxes and tins for original Christmas presents. If you don’t have a Christmas-tree cookie-cutter, use a stencil and cut out your biscuits with the tip of a knife.
- 500g sweet shortcrust pastry
- royal icing
- runny icing
- 1 tablespoon spirulina powder (or green food colouring)
- hundreds and thousands, or other fancy sugar sprinkles to decorate
Good tip: You can also decorate your Christmas tree cookies with ready-made coloured icing pens.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Roll out the pastry to 3mm thick and cut into biscuits with a Christmas-tree cookie-cutter. Place the biscuits on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for approximately 8–10 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking tray.
Make the royal icing and use it to fill a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle and draw the outlines of your biscuits. Set aside for 1 hour to set.
Make the runny icing and divide into 3–4 small bowls. Add a different amount of spirulina powder (or green food colouring) to each one to get different shades of green. If you like, leave one bowl with white icing so you can create snowy trees. With a spoon, gently and carefully drop some icing onto each tree, spreading it evenly to cover the entire surface. Make trees with different shades of green, or pure white.
Before the runny icing sets, add some hundreds and thousands or sugar sprinkles to decorate your trees. Let the biscuits set for one day before storing in airtight containers.
Makes approximately 40 biscuits
Extracted from Party Food for Girls, by Alessandra Zecchini and Shaun Cato-Symonds
