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Easter Biscuits
Today, we're all about biscuits and we're in the baking kinda mood. We love cute cookies with icing and we're obsessed with those therapeutic videos online (if only we were that good as icing). These Easter egg biscuits give you two options to choose from, you can either make complete iced biscuits or jammy. Even better, both?!
You will need:
(Makes 18)300g plain flour plus 50g extra for dusting150g of white caster sugar150g of salted butterOne large eggTwo teaspoons of vanilla extract(For the iced option)500g of royal icing sugarFavourite food colouring gels(For the jammy middle option)Icing sugar for dusting400g of apricot jam or lemon curdInstructions
(Image credit: Schwartz)
Firstly, weigh out the flour and sugar in a bowl and add the butter. Rub with your fingertips until the mixture is like wet sand with no significant butter lumps. Beat the egg with the vanilla and add to the bowl. Now knead the dough together, however, don't overdo it because the biscuits will be tough.
Shape the dough into a disc and then wrap clingfilm over the top and leave for about 15 minutes or more. Heat the oven to 180C (gas mark 4) and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
Now flour a work surface and separate the dough in half. Roll one half out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Using an egg-shaped cookie cutter, stamp out as many cookies as you can and transfer them to one baking tray, leaving some space between each cookie. Repeat this step with the other half of the dough. If you want to make the jammy biscuits, use a small circular cutter to stamp holes in half of the biscuits (where the yolk would be). If you want to get fancy and make both kinds, only stamp holes in a quarter of the cookies.
Now pop into the oven for 12-15 minutes until they have turned a pale gold. Leave them to cool completely.
DECORATION TIME, THE FUN BIT! To decorate the biscuits with icing, add water to the icing sugar to make a thick mixture. It should hold its shape without spreading when piped. Transfer about a third of the icing to a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle or snip a tiny bit off the corner of the bag. Pipe an outline around the biscuits and then draw patterns in the middle, get creative. Spots, swirls, zigzags, you name it! Leave them to dry for about 10 minutes. Then divide the remaining icing between as many colours you'd like to use, then use the gels to dye them (you could also use food colouring). Add a few drops of water to each colour of icing and then transfer to piping bags. Use the coloured icing to colour the eggs in; you may need to use a cocktail stick to tease the corners. Then leave to set completely for a few hours.
(Image credit: aheadofthyme.com)
To make the jammy middle, dust the biscuits with holes in the middle with a coating of icing sugar (it needs to be thick, pretend it's snowing!). Spread the jam or curd generously over the whole biscuits and sandwich the dusted cookies on top of them. Perfection.
Slightly complicated, but definitely worth it. If you're up for a challenge during Easter or feel creative, then these are perfect. Even better when they keep the kids entertained! You could even get creative and make those polka dots come to life by using Gookie Dough balls. Yum!
*Recipe credit goes to BBC Good Food*
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Gookie Dough Easter Nests
Switching things up this hump day with a unique recipe. You've heard of the classic shredded wheat or cornflake cakes which resemble Easter nests, but we've gone up in the world. In this delight, we use chow mein noodles as the nests which are coated in chocolate and peanut butter goodness. Sounds crazy right? But don't knock it until you try it! And as for the eggs? We use Gookie Dough which is shaped into little eggs and is covered in candy melts. Super cute, let's get right into it.
You will need:
(Image credit: ericasweettooth.com)
One miniature tub of Gookie Dough in your choice of flavourPastel candy melts
170g of semi-sweet chocolate chips
170g of butterscotch chips
266g of creamy peanut butter
170g of chow mein noodles
Directions:
Firstly, take your Gookie Dough and roll them into small balls (about half an inch wide), pop them on some parchment paper and put back into the fridge to set.
For the nests, you need to grease a 12 muffin tin and in a large bowl, microwave the chocolate and butterscotch chips. Ensure you do this in 30 seconds intervals, stirring in between. Once this is thoroughly combined, stir in the peanut butter until smooth and creamy.
(Image credit: bestfriendsforfrosting.com)
Now, carefully add the chow mein noodles, use a rubber spatula for this because you want to avoid breakage as much as possible. Coat them thoroughly with the chocolate mixture. Using a large spoon or your fingers, press some of the mixture into each of the muffin spaces, making sure you create a well in the middle for your Gookie Dough to sit in. Chill the nests for at least an hour.
Melt your candy melts and follow the instructions on the packaging. You need to dip your Gookie Dough balls out of the fridge and coat them, do this using a fork and pop them back onto parchment paper to set. It's important to take about five of them out of the fridge at a time, so they don't become too soft. Tap the fork on the side of the bowl to remove any excess. Once dipped, pop into the fridge to set completely and wait for about an hour.
(Image credit: ricette.pourfemme.it)
Lastly, take your Gookie Dough eggs and nests out of the fridge and pop 2-3 eggs in each nest. Adorable!
So what do you think? Looks adorable, now all we need is a chocolate tree! It would also be great to decorate the eggs with royal icing or edible pens which is perfect fun for the kids during the holidays. The crunch of the noodles and the creaminess of the peanut butter goes perfectly. Maybe just try it out of curiosity and you'll also have an excuse to buy more Gookie Dough! Recipe credit goes to Erica Sweet Tooth.