3-in-1 Sugar Biscuits

4.50 (18)
⏱ 20 mins 🍽 Serves 48 🏷 Flour

These adaptable sugar biscuits offer three ways to shape your festive treats. The dough, flavoured with vanilla and orange zest, can be rolled into balls, sliced from logs, or cut into shapes. After chilling, they bake to a golden finish. A simple royal icing, made with meringue powder and icing sugar, provides the perfect base for colourful decoration, creating edible greetings that are both delicious and environmentally friendly.

3-in-1 Sugar Biscuits

Ingredients

  • For the biscuits
  • 350g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp fine salt
  • 225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 95g icing sugar
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla essence
  • 3g finely grated orange zest
  • Coarse sugar/sanding or crystallised sugar
  • Royal Icing, recipe follows
  • For the royal icing
  • 50g meringue powder (egg white powder)
  • 90ml water
  • 450g icing sugar
  • Food colouring, as desired

Method

  1. Whisk the plain flour, baking powder and fine salt together in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the room temperature butter with the caster and icing sugars for about thirty seconds until pale and fluffy. Mix in the egg yolks, vanilla essence and finely grated orange zest until combined. Gradually add the flour mixture, beating until a dough forms, scraping down the bowl as required.
  2. For rolled biscuits, take roughly a tablespoon of dough and shape it into a ball by hand. Press one side of the ball into some coarse sugar, then place it sugar-side-up on an ungreased baking sheet, spacing them about 2.5cm apart.
  3. For sliced biscuits, split the dough in half. Roll each portion by hand into a log roughly 5cm wide. Wrap each log in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours until firm.
  4. Slice the chilled logs into biscuits approximately 0.5cm thick. Arrange them on ungreased baking sheets, leaving about 2.5cm of space between each one.
  5. For cutout biscuits, divide the dough in half and pat each half into a disk. Wrap the disks in cling film and refrigerate for at least two hours until firm. Roll one disk of dough between lightly floured parchment paper until it is about 1cm thick. Place the sheet on a baking tray and chill again for about 30 minutes.
  6. Use a biscuit cutter to cut shapes from the chilled, rolled dough. Transfer the shapes to ungreased baking sheets, spacing them about 2.5cm apart. Gather any dough scraps, pat them into a disk, chill and reroll.
  7. Place all the baking sheets with the shaped biscuits in the refrigerator. Preheat your oven to 190°C / gas mark 5 and chill the biscuits for at least 30 mins.
  8. Bake the biscuits for about 10 to 15 mins, depending on their shape, until the bottoms turn golden. Let them cool on the sheets until firm enough to move to a wire rack to cool completely.
  9. Decorate the cooled biscuits as you like. They can be served immediately or stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one month.
  10. To make the royal icing, put the meringue powder, water and icing sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle. Mix on a slow speed until the icing forms stiff peaks. It should be thick and pure white, not fluffy. If overbeaten, let it settle then beat vigorously with a spatula to smooth it.
  11. You can also make the icing by combining the ingredients in a large bowl and beating with hand mixers on a low speed until stiff peaks form.
  12. Stir in up to one tablespoon of food colouring with a rubber spatula until the colour is even. Store the icing with cling film pressed directly onto the surface to stop it hardening.

Nutrition (per serving)

Nutrition data not available.

Recipe details

CategoryFlour
AuthorFood Network Kitchens