This weekend consisted of putting the Christmas decorations up at home, ice skating, drinking cocktails in the cold and a little bit of Christmas baking. There's nothing I love more than being home at this time of year, the house is always cosy and either the smell of our Christmas Eve Yankee Candle is in the air or mums homemade puff pastry mince pies.
On Sunday morning, I decided to give Tanya Burr's melting snowmen biscuits a go! One, they look super cute and Christmassy. Two, I have been wanting to bake for so long but don't have the proper equipment to do it at uni. Three, my step brother was on a flight back from China for Christmas at home with the family for the first time in years since he's been away, so I wanted to make sure he had a little christmassy treat to come home too!
- Ready in: 45 Minutes
(although I got carried away with the snowmen faces so it took me a little longer!)
- Makes: 20 biscuits
The Ingredients:
For the Biscuits:
- 110g caster sugar
- 225g unsalted butter
- 275g plain flour
For the Icing:
- 200g icing sugar
- 3-4 tbsp milk
To Decorate:
- ready- made writing icing tubes
- 20 marshmallows
1. Preheat
the oven to 180°C/350°F/ gas mark 4. Line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof
paper.
2. Put the
sugar and butter in a bowl and cream together until thick and pale. Stir in the
flour until everything is mixed together.
3.Dust the
work surface with flour then tip the mixture out onto the surface and work it
into a disk with your hands, gathering in all the crumbly bits as you go and
work them into a dough.
4. Roll out
the dough to a thickness of 5mm then cut out 20 circles with the 7cm cutter,
re-rolling scraps of dough as necessary and arranging them on the lined baking
sheets as you go.
5. Bake the
cookies in the oven for 13–15 minutes, or until they are golden brown, then
transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
6. While
waiting for the cookies to cool, decorate your snowmen’s faces by using writing
icing in tubes to draw eyes and a mouth on individual marshmallows. Allow the decorated faces
to set.
7.Make the
icing by putting the icing sugar in a bowl and stirring in the milk little by
little until you have a thick, smooth icing that isn’t runny.
8. When the
cookies are completely cool, spoon a little white icing onto each one – it’s
meant to look like a puddle, so don’t worry about being too neat.
9.While the
icing is still soft, put your marshmallow head in place. Use the icing tubes to add arms and coal buttons to your snowmen. Leave the icing to harden and set for about 10 minutes.
Once the biscuits have cooled, serve them on a plate or board and enjoy with a hot chocolate or cup of tea!
*For more of Tanya's recipes visit her website.
Have any of you tried this recipe before?
Thanks for reading!
- Amelia
