Creative Ideas for Christmas

Creative Ideas for Christmas

When the kids are off school it can be difficult and expensive to keep them amused. Here are a few suggestions to occupy their time.

Chocolate Christmas Cookies

Ingredients

270g Plain Flour

50g Cocoa

120g Icing Sugar

150g Butter or baking fat (Stork etc)

2 eggs

For decoration

Melted Chocolate

Sprinkles

Piping icing

Edible decorations

Mix the flour, cocoa and icing sugar in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Rub in the butter then add the eggs. Knead quickly with your hands into a smooth dough. Wrap in a sandwich bag, press into a flat disc and leave in the fridge for 30 mins to chill.

Heat the oven to 180C or gas 4.

Line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper or baking parchment and sprinkle with a little flour. Separate the dough equally onto each sheet and roll out until approx. 3mm thick. Cut shapes out in the dough using cookie cutters and remove the  excess dough. This can then be rolled out again to make more shapes and added to the baking sheet. It is helpful to put biscuits of a similar size together.

Bake for 7-10 minutes depending on the size of the biscuits. Leave on the baking sheet to cool. When totally cooled the biscuits can be removed and decorated.

Hanging Christmas Tree Cookies

These pretty biscuits dry to a crunchy finish and can be hung on the Christmas tree for a day or so, or wrapped in clear cellophane to last a few days longer. However, it is unlikely they’ll hang around that long.

Ingredients

140g Icing Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Egg Yolk

250g Butter, cut into small cubes

375g Plain Flour

For the decoration

200g Sieved Icing Sugar

Food Colouring

Edible Gold and Silver Decorations

2mm Ribbon or red & white Butchers String cut into 10cm lengths

Mix the Icing Sugar, vanilla, egg yolk, and butter in a bowl and stir together with a spoon or blitz in a food processor. Add the flour and mix to a firm dough. Cut into two pieces and shape into flat discs. Place in a sandwich bag and chill for 30 mins

Heat oven to 190C or gas mark 5

Line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper or baking parchment.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to the thickness of 2x £1 coins. Cut out Christmas Shapes, (Trees, Baubles, Presents, etc) and cut a small hole into the top of each biscuit before baking for approx. 12 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack and then decorate.

Put the ribbon through the hole in the biscuit and tie into a loop ready for hanging on the tree.