I have of course baked for the occasion! The treat being Halloween biscuits! I was never allowed to celebrate Halloween as a kid because my parents thought that 1) its not an English holiday, its American and 2) begging for sweets from strangers is wrong... I'm also terrified of horror films so apart from my student drinking days, I am glad to say I can finally celebrate Halloween!!
I originally used a fancy recipe that I got from the Good Food Cake and Bake Show for double vanilla biscuits but it was just awful. It was extremely wet and sticky and nothing like a normal biscuit dough, I think I had to add a further 100g just to make it easy enough to handle otherwise it stuck to everything! The biscuits did come out fine in the end but the batter only made half the number it was meant to! This set me back a fair amount of time and I'm not even going to bother telling you that recipe as it was so useless!
However, I did quickly get on the internet and get a recipe from one of my favourite baking websites www.bakingmad.com.
I used their recipe for Vanilla Biscuits which can be found at http://www.bakingmad.com/vanilla-star-biscuits-recipe/.
Ingredients
150g Unsalted Butter
75g Golden Caster Sugar (I just used normal caster sugar because I couldnt be bothered to pop to the shops to buy some)
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
300g Plain White Flour
1 Medium Egg
Recipe
1) Preheat the over to 180c, 160c fan, 350f, gas mark 4. Line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper. I used three because I had 3 different cutters which were all different sizing. That way I could take out 1 set of biscuits at a time when cooked so I could get an even bake across all.
2) Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla extract together in a mixing bowl until creamy. Add the egg and continue to mix, gradually adding the flour until you reach a soft dough. Wrap in cling-film and chill for 30 mins.
3) I let the dough warm up slightly as if it is too cold to roll out it will crack but if it is too warm it will be sticky, so cool to the touch is what your aiming for. Roll out the dough 5mm thick on a surface dusted with a little flour. I actually rolled mine out on cling-film dusted in flour as I find it much easier as the dough doesn't stick. Cut out the shapes required and place on a baking tray and bake for 15 mins or until golden brown. Once cooked, place on a wire rack to cool.
4) Once fully cold, use any decorations of your choice for the finishing touches! For my biscuits I used Renshaw Ready To Roll Icing in black, white and orange; I then used squeezy icing, edible glue
and various decorations.
I learnt a few things by trial and error with these biscuits..
Use cornflour to stop the icing sticking to the surface you are rolling it out on.
Definitely roll the white icing out first, as mine turned slightly multi-coloured with orange and black!
To make the icing stick to the biscuit I brushed a thin layer of orange juice onto the biscuit and firmly pressed the icing onto it.
To make all the extra decorations stick, I used edible glue.
Who says baking and decorating biscuits is for kids?! I had a lot of fun making these with my mum (and I created a whole load of mess)!! These biscuits were very very yummy and work seemed to like them too!!
I originally used a fancy recipe that I got from the Good Food Cake and Bake Show for double vanilla biscuits but it was just awful. It was extremely wet and sticky and nothing like a normal biscuit dough, I think I had to add a further 100g just to make it easy enough to handle otherwise it stuck to everything! The biscuits did come out fine in the end but the batter only made half the number it was meant to! This set me back a fair amount of time and I'm not even going to bother telling you that recipe as it was so useless!
However, I did quickly get on the internet and get a recipe from one of my favourite baking websites www.bakingmad.com.
I used their recipe for Vanilla Biscuits which can be found at http://www.bakingmad.com/vanilla-star-biscuits-recipe/.
Ingredients
150g Unsalted Butter
75g Golden Caster Sugar (I just used normal caster sugar because I couldnt be bothered to pop to the shops to buy some)
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
300g Plain White Flour
1 Medium Egg
Recipe
1) Preheat the over to 180c, 160c fan, 350f, gas mark 4. Line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper. I used three because I had 3 different cutters which were all different sizing. That way I could take out 1 set of biscuits at a time when cooked so I could get an even bake across all.
2) Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla extract together in a mixing bowl until creamy. Add the egg and continue to mix, gradually adding the flour until you reach a soft dough. Wrap in cling-film and chill for 30 mins.
3) I let the dough warm up slightly as if it is too cold to roll out it will crack but if it is too warm it will be sticky, so cool to the touch is what your aiming for. Roll out the dough 5mm thick on a surface dusted with a little flour. I actually rolled mine out on cling-film dusted in flour as I find it much easier as the dough doesn't stick. Cut out the shapes required and place on a baking tray and bake for 15 mins or until golden brown. Once cooked, place on a wire rack to cool.
4) Once fully cold, use any decorations of your choice for the finishing touches! For my biscuits I used Renshaw Ready To Roll Icing in black, white and orange; I then used squeezy icing, edible glue
and various decorations.
I learnt a few things by trial and error with these biscuits..
Use cornflour to stop the icing sticking to the surface you are rolling it out on.
Definitely roll the white icing out first, as mine turned slightly multi-coloured with orange and black!
To make the icing stick to the biscuit I brushed a thin layer of orange juice onto the biscuit and firmly pressed the icing onto it.
To make all the extra decorations stick, I used edible glue.
Who says baking and decorating biscuits is for kids?! I had a lot of fun making these with my mum (and I created a whole load of mess)!! These biscuits were very very yummy and work seemed to like them too!!
