I love to bake and I especially love to bake at Christmas time. For yourself, to share, or for gifts, home-baked goods can be easy to make and really yummy! Over the years, I’ve perfected my Christmas biscuit recipes and I’m going to share two of them with you in this post. One is a classic (with a little twist) and the other is a simple but versatile option.

‘Not so ginger’ gingerbread

I love gingerbread. The smell and taste of it bring so much nostalgia. More so than gingerbread though, the smells and tastes of nutmeg and cinnamon also invoke the spirit of Christmas.

The secret, then, to my ‘not so ginger’ gingerbread is that I use ground mixed spice, rather than ground ginger. It’s a trick my mum taught me when making ‘gingerbread’ as the flavour is really enhanced and the extra spice adds so much to the biscuits.

Ingredients:

• 175g plain flour
• 85g light brown soft sugar
• 50g butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground mixed spice

Equipment:

• mixing bowl
• tablespoon
• teaspoon
• weighing scales
• cookie cutters
• baking sheet (and baking paper)
• rolling pin
• oven
• wire cooling rack

Method:

• preheat oven to 180 degrees C
• mix flour, butter, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda using your fingertips to create a crumbly mixture (breadcrumb texture)
• add sugar, golden syrup and the egg to the crumbly mixture and mix into a dough
• roll it out using a rolling pin to a thickness of 0.5cm
• using cookie cutters, cut out shapes making use of as much of the dough as possible
• put shapes on a greased baking sheet (use baking paper as well as it makes life so much easier)
• bake for 10-15 minutes (I like gingerbread to have both a crunch and some softness to the middle so take them out of the oven and leave them for a minute on the baking sheet before moving to a wire cooling rack)

The quantities I’ve noted will give you approximately 20 biscuits depending on the size of the cutter you use. Once cooled, store in an airtight tin/container.

Vanilla biscuits

What I love about these vanilla biscuits is that not only are they really easy to make but you can mix in whatever yummy extras that you want to add flavour and texture. I’ve made these using chocolate chips, dried cranberries, raisins, crushed up candy canes, grated citrus zest, and more (not all at the same time!). With such a plain (but still tasty) biscuit, it’s up to you to boost the flavour with whatever additions work for you.

Ingredients:

• 75g golden caster sugar
• 150g unsalted butter
• 250g plain flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 75g to 100g of whatever dry extras you’re adding (cranberries, dried fruit, chocolate chips, etc)
• or, zest and juice of 1 citrus fruit

(For vanilla & cranberry biscuits, I tend to use 75g cranberries. For chocolate orange biscuits, I’ll use zest and juice of 1 orange and 100g dark chocolate chips)

Equipment:

• mixing bowl
• mixer, hand mixer, or whisk (I’m lucky enough to have a KitchenAid but you can mix by hand)
• teaspoon
• weighing scales
• cookie cutters
• baking sheet (and baking paper)
• rolling pin
• oven
• wire cooling rack

Method:

• preheat oven to 150 degrees C (fan: 130 degrees C)
• beat sugar and butter together in a bowl until fully mixed and creamy
• add flour, vanilla extract and other flavourings to the sugar/butter and use your hands to work mixture into a dough (if the dough is too wet, it’s probably because you’ve added citrus juice so just add a little more flour to balance it out)
• once the dough is well mixed, isn’t too wet, but holds together nicely, roll it out using a rolling pin to a thickness of 1cm
• using cookie cutters (I have festive ones which add to the Christmas theme), cut out shapes making use of as much of the dough as possible
• put shapes on a greased baking sheet (use baking paper as well as it makes life so much easier)
• bake for 8-10 minutes

The quantities I’ve noted will give you approximately 30 biscuits (depending on the size of the cutter you use) so I tend to bake 2 batches of 15 biscuits, putting them onto a wire cooling rack to cool once I take them out of the oven. Store in an airtight tin/container. 

Comment and let me know if you make these over Christmas and also please share your own baking recipes with me. I always love to try new ideas.