Christmas Treats

Because it's coming up to Christmas, I thought I'd share a recipe for something sweet that you could even use as a decoration. I came up with these back in May and posted them as part of an event to celebrate the first book birthday for my debut novel Keir. Because my male MC was nicknamed the Blue Demon, the biscuits (cookies) were themed to match, but you could use any colour (say red and green for Christmas).

  
Blue Star Biscuits (Cookies)

The basic sweet biscuit recipefor  this has been in my family since before I was born, but I’ve added a twist to create the coloured centers. You will need:

4oz. butter
4oz. caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
8oz. plain flour
Boiled sweets

Oven temperature: 350°F

Lightly grease three baking trays. Cream the butter and sugar together, add the egg gradually and beat well. Sift the flour and fold into the creamed mixture. Knead lightly and roll out to the required thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters – for mine I used two different sizes of star and kept the middles too, but you could use any shape. Place on the trays and put a boiled sweet in the hole in the middle – you can crush these to make them melt quicker in the oven so the biscuit part doesn’t overcook. Bake toward the top of the oven for 15-20 minutes until pale brown (the sweet should melt and spread out in the center of the biscuit). Allow to cool before removing from the trays to allow the melted sweet to reset.

You could also make different shapes and use different coloured sweets to vary the design, even using them to make edible Christmas tree decorations if you make a hole in the biscuit before cooking to thread ribbon. You can also flavor the biscuit (because of the sweets I didn’t add any flavoring to these) by using the following:

2 level tsps. grated lemon rind
2 level tsps. mixed spice or cinnamon
2 tsps. Vanilla essence
2oz. dried fruit
2oz. glace cherries, chopped
Grated rind of one orange.

Enjoy!

And if you fancy giving me a Christmas present, you can always pop over to my website and maybe buy a book here (or there's two free reads available if you've already spent all your pennies). Merry Christmas, and may you find everything you wished for under the tree.