FESTIVE SHORTBREAD BISCUITS

Ugh, I just loooove the smell of baking in the house, especially in the Winter. It's just so comforting, like a big hug when you're feeling crappy... If I'm really busy with work and on the road a lot, I find it grounds me and makes my house feel like mine again (even if it's in bits). Does that make sense? Please note, I'm no baker though. When I'm looking for recipes, the first thing I check is the list of ingredients. If there are too many items or any "obscure" things then I immediately move to the next one. I don't count myself as much of a cook or a baker so my only criteria is that it's simple and that I've heard of every ingredient. 

So imagine my delight when I stumbled across this Rachel Allen recipe for shortbread biscuits. Only three ingredients people! I'm giving these bad boys a Christmas makeover with some star cookie cutters from Helen James in Dunnes Stores and Christmas trees and snowflake cutters from TKMaxx. 

How lovely to have these made and stored in a festive biscuit tin for all your visitors over the Christmas. It's also an easy one for the kids to "help" with. You can hide their efforts at the bottom of the tin. Just kidding (but not really). 

As I said, the below recipe is a Rachel Allen one, I added a bit of cinnamon into mine to make them a little more festive! Also it's mandatory that these are enjoyed with a hot chocolate topped with lashings of fresh cream. 

INGREDIENTS

150g Plain Flour

100g Butter (softened and diced)

50g Caster Sugar

METHOD

- Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) Gas mark 4.

- Sift the flour into a large bowl and, using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and bring the whole mixture together to form a stiff dough (don't be tempted to add any water.) Alternatively, briefly mix all the ingredients in a food processor until they come together.

- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and roll out to about 5mm (1/4 inch) thick. Cut into whatever Christmassy cookie cutter you have, then lift carefully onto a prepared baking sheet, spacing the biscuits evenly apart.

- Bake for 6-10 minutes or until pale golden, then remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for a minute or so before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool down completely.

- Lightly dust with some icing sugar to finish.