My girls both love our local library. They get very excited. The eldest chooses her books very quickly. The youngest can never make a decision. In the end, the only way she that will reluctantly make a decision is if you tell her (for the fifth time) that you (really) are leaving in five seconds. Anyway, the eldest chose The Usborne Little Book of Christmas Cooking (the youngest chose a story about Christmas Unicorns, eventually). This book is really lovely. It is full of biscuit and cake recipes with a Christmas theme. Each step of the recipe is illustrated with a drawing to help children understand each stage.
On our first read-through both girls were taken with the Painted Biscuits recipe. They each wanted to make them for everyone in their class. That is sixty biscuits, yes, sixty biscuits. All of which need stamping out, and all of which need painting.
Actually, it wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be. The girls helped stamp out half the dough and then (even more helpfully) painted those whilst I stamped out the rest. We got a bit of a production line going.
They were appreciated by everyone in their class I understand, and why not? They are light and buttery and they look lovely with their festive shapes and colours.
This recipe makes enough to make 60 small biscuits. It can easily be halved if you don’t have two classes of children to feed.
150g softened butter
100g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour
To decorate:
1 egg white
food colouring
clean new paintbrushes
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°c, gas mark 4.
Cream the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix well. Sift the flour into the bowl and mix until it comes together in a ball of dough. Place in the fridge to chill for twenty minutes.
To make the paint, lightly whisk the egg white and divide between as many cups as you want colours. Add a few drops of your chosen food colour to each cup.
Grease baking trays with butter ( I needed four to make 60 biscuits, but you could do this is rotation, cooking one batch at a time).
Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the dough to about 5mm thick. Stamp out shapes and place them onto the greased tray. Paint away to your heart’s content with the coloured egg white.
Bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes until lightly golden.
Use a palette knife to place them onto a wire rack to cool.
That is so sweet, Kath.
They are kind girls (most of the time). 😉
Treasure these moments – they grow up so quickly. I think they did a brilliant job of painting the biscuits – they look fantastic!
Caroline, their painting was so much better than mine!
Super cute!
I was starting to worry about you, welcome back x
Thanks VBB. I lost my inspiration for a little while, but hopefully back on track now.
Glad you’re back online – thought Bite n Write had put you off! Wonderful biscuits – what talented kids you have and generous too. I can’t imagine wanting to give everyone in my class a biscuit!
Ha ha, no just couldn’t get back into the swing of things for a while. They are good girls, but they both have lovely kids in their class and at the moment both think school is great.
I, too, am glad to see you posting. Looks like mother like daughters. Very festive cookies that I’m sure all enjoyed.
They are much more talented and generous than I am Michele 😉
Ah this is what Christmas is about.
This is a novel recipe too – painting them before baking!
Well done to you and your girls – lovely.
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Ah so cute Kath. Anything children make are so much, much better than anything we adults turn out.
I agree with Lou, this is what Christmas is all about–a generous spirit, creating and sharing together. I love these painted biscuits!