Toddler Bakes: Easy-Peasy Christmas Biscuits

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen when I was growing up with my Nanny doing all sorts of baking and when she wasn’t working I joined my mum in the kitchen too. I started cooking from a young age and absolutely loved it and still enjoy it (obviously) today. Something I was really looking forward to was getting Alyssa into the kitchen which we have been doing more and more recently as she tends to eat a lot more of her food if she has helped to prepare it herself. Another thing we are loving at the moment is baking together – she adds the ingredients, I prep the ingredients, she presses the buttons, I contain the mess, she plays with the product, I attempt to shape the product and then we “decorate” together. With the festive season now officially upon us (I’ve been holding in all my Christmas cheer for months now!!!) it is time to crack out the Christmas recipes. Most people go for gingerbread but not many people in our house like it (I do just FYI) so we decided to go for some Christmas Spiced Biscuits instead…

Ingredients (makes a decent amount):

Biscuits – 

250g Butter, softened

140g Caster Sugar

1 Egg Yolk

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

3 tsp Ground Ginger/Cinnamon/All Spice (pick your favourite)

300g Plain Flour

Decoration –

Food Colouring

2 Tbsp of Icing Sugar PER colour required

1 Tbsp of Water PER colour required

Sprinkles and all sorts of sprinkly bits from the supermarket baking aisle OR random kids sweets!

Method (as much as you can have a method with kids!):

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. In a food mixer (I used my gorgeous Stand Mixer from Domu) add the butter and sugar and beat together until smooth and creamy.
2. Add in the egg yolk, vanilla extract and spice of your choice and mix again.
3. Sift in the flour and mix again until a dough mixture is formed. Remove the bowl from the mixer and using your hands shape the dough into a ball (or in my case one big ball and one medium ball for the little one!)
4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough evenly until it is about 1cmor slightly less thick. Using Christmas Cookie Cutters which we already happened to own (I found a link for you and it’s NOT affiliate) cut various shapes and place them on a lined baking tray or silicone baking sheet.
5. Bake in the middle of the oven for 12-15 minutes or until slightly golden. Remove and place on a cooling rack until completely cool and crisp.
6. Place 2 Tablespoons of Icing Sugar in a bowl, add some food colouring and tablespoon of cold water and mix until a smooth paste appears. Repeat this for each colour you would like – we happened to have no green or red dye so we went with pastel colours!
7. Apply to the top of each biscuit with a spoon or by dunking them in and then sprinkle sprinkly bits on top – this is what MUMMY does. For little ones – spread icing all over the table with a small amount going on the biscuit before putting the rest of the spoon in your mouth followed by all the sprinkly bits made of chocolate. Any not made of chocolate will eventually end up on the biscuit, floor or be given to the cat!
8. Once decorated place back on the cooling rack and allow the icing sugar to set  – again this is what MUMMY does. For little ones – refuse to relinquish the one biscuit you managed to decorate and walk around the rest of the day with sticky hands and treating the biscuit like “my precious” whilst gradually licking off all the toppings that made it on before finally discarding it!

There you have it folks – my fool proof, easy-peasy Christmas biscuits that even a toddler could make, with a little help from an adult of course! If you have a go yourself, don’t forget to share your Christmas creations with me by sending me a photo of  Twitter or Facebook or even tagging me on Instagram.

Keep Baking and Merry Christmas!