OMG I LOVE a biscuit! YUM! 😋
I mean, it probably wouldn’t be right to say that we love biscuits more than cake but there’s always a scramble to get the leftovers whenever biscuits are on the menu!
As they are or slathered in royal icing, we just love ‘em!
This is a recipe for an American style sugar cookie, which is almost like a shortbread but a little softer thanks to the egg and the icing sugar. And they are super easy to make, especially if you cheat like I do and do it in a food processor!
When baked the biscuits come out nice and flat with minimal spread so they are great for decorating, either with fondant or royal icing (my fave!)
Before you start:
It’s not absolutely vital for the butter to be chilled. We’re going to chill the dough before we roll it out so it has chance to firm up again – this makes it easier to work with
What you'll need:
120g icing sugar
20g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
250g butter
375g plain flour Baking trays
Baking paper
Preferred cutter for shapes
Makes 20 cookies
Ready for the recipe? Here we go…
Line a couple of baking trays with baking paper or grease them with a bit of butter and flour
Mix together the butter, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla, until everything is incorporated. You can either do this by hand, with a whisk or in a food processor.
Mix in the flour
When the dough starts to come together, I like to tip it onto a lightly floured work surface and work it together with my hands
Roll it into a ball, wrap in cling film and pop it in the fridge for at 30 minutes. Short on time? Pop it in the freezer for 5-10 minutes.
Once it’s had time to chill, get it out onto the work surface again and give it a quick knead – don’t overwork it though – it just needs enough to get it all brought together ready for rolling.
Lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough. It needs to be rolled to just a bit thicker than a £1 coin ( 2.8mm ).
Use your preferred cutter to cut out your shapes and transfer the dough to your lined baking trays
Once you have all your cookies, get the oven heating up to 160 degrees (fan)/gas mark 3/ 170 C electric and pop the trays into the freezer. I leave them in there while the oven is heating up (about 5 mins or so.) If you can’t fit them in your freezer, pop them in the fridge, you might just have to keep them in there for a bit longer (10-15 mins)
Once the biscuits have firmed up a bit get them in the oven. I like to bake them for 7 minutes, turn the trays round and then bake for a further 6 minutes. They need to be baked until just golden brown.
Take then out and leave them to cool a little before transferring them to a wire cooling rack. They will be soft just out of the oven, so you need to let them cool a bit to make it easier to move them to the cooling rack.
Once cooled, you can decorate however you wish! Get some ready made royal icing or some fondant and just get creative!
Or do what we do and just eat them with a lovely cuppa!
Vicky xox