Christmas Wreath Biscuits

Do you struggle for ideas for presents at Christmas. Sometimes a box of home made biscuits makes a lovely gift and if you can make something on a festive theme it is a bit more special. I know my mum loves edible gifts and appreciates them more when my son gets involved in making them.

At the weekend we made some biscuits. I had some holly cake decorations and had the idea of using these to make the biscuits look like Christmas wreaths. The biscuits were really simple to make. I used two round biscuit cutters of different sizes to make the circles. Once the biscuits were cooked I covered them in melted white chocolate and decorated them with dried cranberries and the holly decorations. You could also use chocolate curls, berries and nuts to make a festive looking biscuit.

I was really pleased with how effective they looked. They would look perfect packed in a box with some pink tissue paper to set them off. They tasted lovely as well.

Christmas Wreath Biscuits Recipe

Ingredients

• 250g (8oz) plain flour
• 25g (1oz) cocoa powder
• 250g (8oz) butter
• 140g (4½ oz) icing sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

To decorate

• 125g (4 oz) white chocolate
• Holly cake decorations
• Dried cranberries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C 350F Gas Mark 4
2. Add the flour, butter and cocoa powder to a bowl. Rub together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add the icing sugar, egg yolks and vanilla extract and combine into a dough.
4. Wrap in cling film and leave to chill for at least half an hour.
5. Use cutters to create rings, re-rolling the left overs to make more rings
6. Place on a baking tray covered with baking parchment and bake for 15 minutes.
7. Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over boiling water. Drizzle over the tops of the biscuits.
8. Add the dried cranberries and holly decorations to make it look like a Christmas wreath.
9. Leave for the chocolate to harden before eating.