Ingredients
6 oz plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground mixed spice
2 oz butter, chilled and cubed
3 oz soft light brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup, heated
1 egg, beaten
1 plain flour for dusting
1 decoration
9 oz packet coloured fondant
1 icing
1 glace icing made with 2oz
1 icing sugar & 2 tspn water
1 icing sugar for rolling
1 silver balls, sweets,
1 desiccated coconut, gold
1 thread
Directions
Preheat oven to 190'C (375'F). Grease two baking sheets. Sift the
flour, bicarbonate of soda and spice into a bowl. Rub the butter into
the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the
sugar. Add the golden syrup and egg and mix to form a dough. Gently
knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth, the roll out to
1/4 inch thick. Use christmas cutters to cut out 16 shapes. Lift
shapes on to baking sheets and bake until just firm to the touch.
Make a hole large enough for gold thread at the top of each biscuit.
Transfer to cooling rack and leave until cold. To decorate, roll out
fondant icing on a clean surface dusted with icing sugar. Cut out
shapes with cutters and place on biscuits, securing them with a
little water. Make a hole for thread as before. Decorate with piped
glace icing, silver balls, sweets or coconut. Thread each biscuit
with gold thread and hang on Christmas tree, if liked.
Servings: 16 servings
Christmas Tree Biscuits Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads; Christmas; Holiday
The History of Recipes
It is possible to follow the history of meal recipes way back into antiquity, in fact as far back into recorded history as the Egyptians, and maybe further still. In practice though, in the main part, these early records were just simple pictorial instructions for meal preparation.
In fact, the most ancient recipe discovered, according to experts are some clay tablets in Sumerian which recount the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who drank it feel blissful and exhilarated. Later on, in The time of the romans around 25BC a roman called Apicius compiled a few documents showing how to cook the recipes prepared by the Romans. In his publication, he tells us how the meals were divided into hors d`oeuvres, main meal and dessert, something we still use today. This early Roman chef tells us how the ancient chefs used a good variety of aromatic flavors, including a few you will know like basil, fennel and parsley. Later on in the 1400s, people returning from the crusades brought us many new foods, spices and herbs from the holy land, including coriander, parsley, and rosemary. The introduction of these new tastes caused an explosion in recipe manuscripts, most of which still exist in private collections. For the decades that followed, the rich and powerful families of Europe strove to lay on the best banquets, and consequentially the best cooks and their recipes became highly prized. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the 19th century that fine cookery and recipe books became really popular. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, devoted their lives to collecting, trying out, and writing down recipes that were common in the better off homes of the day. The arrival of television brings us celebrity TV chefs and the spin-off recipe books. Which brings us neatly up to date and the invention of computers and the internet, permitting us all to access thousands of recipes such as those found on sites such as this. |
We hope you enjoy this Christmas Tree Biscuits recipe.
