Looks good enough to eat? Well in this case you can! Celebrate the Platinum Jubilee with these festive vanilla biscuits.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cool Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 1.5 hours
Yield: 15 biscuits
Special Equipment: Stand or hand mixer and triangle cookie cutter
Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter, softened
280g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 each large egg
400g plain flour
pinch salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
500g white fondant, for decoration
1/4 tsp red food colouring
1/4 tsp blue food colouring
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.
Put the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and cream until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and mix well, scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side
of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Add the flour. salt and cream of tartar and mix well, but don't overmix. The dough should be light, soft and easy to handle.
Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Cut out shapes with your choice of biscuit cutters. Remember to poke holes into the two top corners of your biscuits if you want to be able to string them together!Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes.
Check them regularly to make sure they are not burning. The biscuits should be very light golden on the outer edges and paler in the centre. When you are happy that they are cooked through, remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
To make your fondant decorations, divide the fondant equally into 3 pieces. Start with the plain white and use a rolling pin to roll out the fondant until it is about the thickness of a £1 coin. If your fondant is sticking, use some powdered sugar to help it stay loose.
Use the same triangle cookie cutter you used for the biscuits to cut out the fondant. Once you have a few fondant triangles, move onto the next fondant ball.
Take the fondant and press a hole into the center of the ball. put a few drops of red food colouring into the hole and begin to knead the colour into the fondant. Once all of the colour is mixed in, roll out the fondant with a rolling pin and cut out red triangles.
Repeat step 10 with the blue food colouring.
When you have your three colours cut out into triangles, you can stack them on top of one another and use a knife to create patterns or stick them straight to the biscuit.
To stick the fondant to the biscuit, brush a very small amount of water on the back of the fondant and press it to the biscuit. Used a small knife to trim the edges of the fondant to fit the biscuit and poke out the bunting holes.
Use strawberry laces or string to turn your biscuits into bunting!
Tips:
Put your biscuits back into the fridge for 15 minutes before baking. This helps them not to spread.
Handle the fondant gently, if it stretches too much it won't look good on the biscuit.
