Baking Ideas: Christmas Star Biscuits and Recipe

Recipe thanks to: BBC Food Recipes - Christmas Biscuits; Ingredients bought with my ING Direct card with Wave and Save Promotion

For the Christmas season, I attempted Baking for my friends and family. I took advantage of ING Direct's new Wave and Save promotion to buy some ingredients and venture into the foreign of cooking.
I used a very simple recipe from BBC, taking only half an hour to prepare and bake, but taking just over an hour to ice and decorate (remember that point). My fingers cramped a little holding the tiny cachous and carefully adding them to the star points. Takes alot of patient I will admit, hehe. Here's the recipe straight from the BBC website:

Less than 30 mins - preparation time

10 to 30 mins - cooking time

Makes 24

Ingredients

• 100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 100g/3½oz caster sugar
• 1 free-range egg, lightly beaten
• 275g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• To decorate
• 400g/14oz icing sugar
• 3-4 tbsp water
• 2-3 drops food colourings
• Edible glitter

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale, light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract, a little at a time, until well combined.
4. Stir in the flour until the mixture comes together as a dough.
5. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 1cm/½in.
6. Using biscuit cutters or a glass, cut biscuits out of the dough and carefully place onto the baking tray. To make into Christmas tree decorations, carefully make a hole in the top of the biscuit using a straw.
7. Bake the biscuits for 8-10 minutes, or until pale golden-brown. Set aside to harden for 5 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.
8. For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and stir in enough water to create a smooth mixture. Stir in the food colouring.
9. Carefully spread the icing onto the biscuits using a knife and sprinkle over the glitter. Set aside until the icing hardens.

I used green and red colouring to get the Christmas themed colours, and then writing gel to  add personalised initials for my friends. I then used a gift box to transport the cookies to my friends, adding chocolates and candy canes as extra treats. Merry Christmas!