Christmas Bake Sale

17 November 2015

Christmas Bake Sale Part 1-

Classic Christmas Biscuit Recipes 

Traditional Biscuits

We all have our favourite type of biscuit, but at Christmas time there is nothing like the traditional favourites. Buttery Shortbreads and crisp ginger breads are the classic festive feast and they are super easy to make and great to give as gifts or to sell at a fundraising bake sale. We have given our tried and tested recipes below that are guaranteed to be a success!

Shortbread

The 3-ingredient recipe! This will make around 20 biscuits shapes or finger 125g butter 55g caster sugar 180g plain flour

1. Pre heat the oven to 190C and line baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy.
3. Sift in the flour until the dough starts to thicken.
4. Knead the rest of the dough together with your hands to create a firmer dough.
5. Roll out the dough to a around 1cm thick and cut into your desired shapes. Or roll into a circle or rectangle if you plan to cut the biscuits down once they’ve been cooked.
6. Place the biscuits in the oven for around 20 minutes until golden brown
7. Place aside onto a cooling rack to cool. If you are cutting the biscuits into fingers or triangles after its cooked, it’s best to do it when its slightly warm to stop them crumbling.
8. Store in an airtight container and they will keep for up to 5 days.

Top tips -It is much easier to cream the butter and sugar together if the butter is brought to room temperature. It will save you a lot of arm ache! -Don’t over work the dough as the butter will become too melted when put into the oven. -The dough is quite sticky so it can be hard to roll out. Before you start rolling our your dough and cutting our biscuits shapes, try putting down some grease proof paper with flour so they don’t stick to your work surface. -The biscuits will seem under cooked when you take them out the oven but they will continue to cook and harden when they’re cooling. It’s super easy to burn them so keep an eye on the biscuits as they cook.   

Ginger Bread

This recipe will make around 15 biscuits 225g plain flour ¼ tsp salt 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1 heaped tsp ground ginger ½ tsp cinnamon 50g unsalted butter 100g soft brown sugar 2 ½ tbsp golden syrup

1. Pre heat the oven to 180C and line baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt together.
3. Heat the butter, syrup and sugar together in a bowl over a pan of hot water until everything is dissolved. Leave the mixture to cool.
4. Mix in the butter mix to the dry ingredients and make into a dough. Knead the mix together to makes a smoother dough by hand.
5. Cover the dough with foil or cling film and leave to cool in the fridge for 30 minutes.
6. Roll out the dough to around 1cm thick and cut into your desired shapes. Place on the baking tray allowing space to spread when cooking.
7. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
8. Place on a cooling rack to cool and store in an airtight container. Biscuits will keep for up to 5 days.

Top Tips -The dough is very sticky and will need a lot of flour to help roll out and cut the dough. -Biscuits will seem under cooked when they are taken out the oven but they will firm up a lot when cooled. Ginger biscuits burn very easily in the oven so it’s best to take them out sooner rather than later. -Make sure the biscuits are completely cool before decorating them, as the icing will just slide off!

Christmas Bake Sale- Image via Viktor Janacek/FreePik

Decorations

Christmas Cookie Cutters. Image via Viktor Janacek/Freepik

The beauty of these simple, classic biscuits is they can be cut into various shapes and decorated in so many ways that each batch of biscuits can look unique and original. These three recipes are all you’ll need to wow your friends and family at Christmas. Think about buying various shaped cutters to create different biscuits. Ginger biscuits don’t have to be gingerbread shaped, think about trying Christmas trees, snowflakes, bells, snowmen etc. Using various shaped also creates great edible Christmas tree decorations; cut out a small whole in the top of the biscuits and tie through some ribbon. Piping icing comes in so many colours, so decorate your biscuits with bright designs, or keep it classic and pipe white patterned icing onto the biscuits. It’s up to you how fancy or artistic you want to go. We have put together a Christmas Bake Pinterest board for inspiration on how to decorate your biscuits and other creations you may want to try. Follow Raffle Tickets 4U’s board Christmas Bake Sale on Pinterest.

Finally, to make your biscuits even more indulgent, you can create fillings and sandwich two biscuits together. This works perfectly for both types of biscuits. Fillings could include: jam, butter cream, flavoured butter cream or melted chocolate. Here is our quick recipe for chocolate butter cream: 50g of quality dark chocolate 100g unsalted butter 200g icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot simmering water until smooth. Regularly take the bowl of the heat whilst stirring to ensure the chocolate doesn’t burn. Leave the chocolate to cool.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until soft and gradually sieve in the icing sugar and continue to beat until smooth. Add the vanilla extract here too if you wish.
3. Fold in the melted chocolate once it has cooled and mix until completely incorporated.
4. Place in a piping page if you’re piping it on or smooth onto biscuits with the back of a spoon.
5. The icing will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days; just bring the mixture back to room temperate and beat again before using on your biscuits or cakes.

Look out for part 2 of our Christmas Bake Sale series to see our no-bake recipes, great for a quick and easy gift or treat. We would love to see your christmas baking creations and hear about your fundraising success so tweet us you could feature on our blog.