Four fun Christmas biscuits

Forget shop bought shortbread and stale mince pies

Get creative in the kitchen and tuck into a plate of festive treats with these four amazing Christmas biscuit ideas.

Melty snowmen

Sweet and snowy, have some fun creating these cute snowmen cookies

Ingredients

Biscuits:

Icing:

Method

Cream the butter and caster sugar together before beating in the egg yolk and vanilla extract.
Sift in the flour then add enough milk to create a dough. Lightly knead the dough before wrapping it in Clingfilm and refrigerating for 20 minutes.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to 0.5cm thickness. Cut out 10 circles and place them on a lined baking tray. Cook for 16 minutes at 180˚C and then leave to cool.
To decorate, roll out the white icing to 3mm thick and cut out 10 circles slightly bigger than the biscuits. Flatten the edge of each icing circle to make an uneven texture.
Spread 1/2 tsp jam on each biscuit, leaving a gap around the edge. Put a marshmallow on the jam.
Place the icing on each biscuit and smooth it over the marshmallow to make the collapsing snowman shape. Use icing pens to draw scarves, hats, buttons and faces.

A twist on a classic buttery favourite, these reindeer versions feature an unusual ingredient

Ingredients

Method

Mix the butter, vanilla and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the ground rice and flour until the mixture forms a ball.
Line a baking sheet with baking paper and place the dough ball in the centre. Flatten into a circle using a rolling pin and then use a small plate to cut around for perfect edges.
Mark the circle into 8 wedges using a knife but don’t cut through the dough completely. Prick each with a fork to create holes and press down along the edges to make lines.
Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Cook the shortbread at 180˚C for 35 minutes or until golden brown.
Let it cool before cutting the wedges along the lines you previously made.
Mix icing sugar with a small amount of water. Use this to help stick a red sweet on the point of each wedge and two chocolate buttons at the wide ends to create a fun Rudolph face!

Inject some winteriness into your baking with these delicious nutty snowy owl delights

Ingredients

Method

Combine the butter and sugar in a bowl. Beat in the egg and add it to the butter mix with some vanilla extract.
Sift in the flour and stir into a dough. Place this onto a floured surface and knead before wrapping it in cling film and chilling it in the fridge for two hours.
Meanwhile, toast the almonds carefully in the oven.
Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it to 1cm thickness on a floured surface. Cut into ovals.
Place the biscuits on a lined baking tray and push in the almonds to each one to create eyebrows and beaks. Bake at 190˚C for 8-10 minutes.
Let them cool on the tray before decorating. Melt some white chocolate in a bain marie and use it to stick on two buttons to each biscuits as eyes. Use the white buttons as eyes and the chips as the pupils.
Brush any remaining melted chocolate on the owls’ tummies as feathers, and enjoy!

Enjoy a taste of honey with these yummy glittering bites

Ingredients

Method

Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Beat the egg in then add in the honey and vanilla extract.
Sift in the flour and combine to create a dough. Roll out the dough to 1cm thickness on a floured surface.
Cut circles out and place them on a lined baking tray. Bake at 180˚C for 8 minutes and then allow the biscuits to cool.
Melt the white chocolate in a bain marie and use it to ice the biscuits. Sprinkle them with glitter and then let the chocolate set before eating.