Orange and Ginger Stained Glass Biscuits
These delightful German biscuits are a wonderful festive project. They feature a spiced dough flavoured with orange zest and ground ginger, with colourful boiled sweets melted in the centre to create a stained glass effect. Once baked and cooled, the biscuits can be threaded with ribbon and hung as edible Christmas decorations. The recipe yields about 14 biscuits and takes roughly 35 minutes to prepare and bake.
Ingredients
- sunflower oil for greasing
- 175g plain flour plus extra
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- zest 1 orange
- 100g butter cold, cut into chunks
- 50g golden caster sugar
- 1 tbsp milk
- 12 fruit-flavoured boiled sweets
- icing sugar to dust
- about 120cm thin ribbon to decorate
Method
- Set your oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Lightly coat two large non-stick baking trays with sunflower oil. Combine the plain flour, ground ginger, orange zest, butter, and 1⁄2 tsp salt in a food processor, pulsing until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the golden caster sugar and milk, pulsing again until combined. Turn the dough onto a floured surface, knead it briefly until smooth, then wrap and refrigerate for about 30 mins.
- Lightly flour your work surface once more. Roll the chilled dough out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Use a 7cm cutter to stamp out shapes, then remove the centres with a 4cm cutter. Gather and re-roll any leftover dough. Pierce a small hole at the top of each biscuit before transferring them carefully to the prepared baking sheets.
- Place the fruit-flavoured boiled sweets inside their wrappers and crush them with a rolling pin. Divide the crushed sweet pieces between the cut-out centres of the biscuits, ensuring the pieces sit level with the dough. Bake for 15-20 mins until the biscuits are golden brown and the sweet centres have fully melted.
- Allow the biscuits to cool and harden completely on the trays before moving them to a wire rack. Once cool, thread a length of thin ribbon through the hole in each biscuit. Finish with a light dusting of icing sugar. These biscuits will keep for a month stored properly but are best enjoyed within 3 days.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories160 kcal
Fat8 g
Saturates5 g
Carbs23 g
Sugars10 g
Fibre1 g
Protein2 g
Sodium56 mg
Recipe details
Skill levelEasy
CategorySnack
Cuisinegerman
