Snowmen and Reindeer Vanilla Biscuits

You’ll have no problem getting the kids into the kitchen to make and bake these super cute Christmas biscuits.

Snowmen and Reindeer Vanilla Biscuits

Preparation time 1 hour plus chilling - Baking time 15-18 mins per batch - Makes 12 snowmen and 12 reindeer biscuits

Ingredients

For the biscuit dough:

• 185g butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 250g plain flour, sifted

For decorating the snowmen:

• 25g currants
• Icing sugar for dusting
• 1 packet of coloured ready to roll icing

For decorating the reindeer:

• Packet of pretzels
• 25g currants
• 6 glacé cherries, halved

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4 then line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. For the biscuit dough, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until light and fluffy (ask an adult if you can use an electric whisk for this). Add the egg and egg yolk and mix well. Stir in the flour then use your hands to bring the mixture together to form a biscuit dough – add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky.
3. Split the dough in half and roll out each piece between two large sheets of baking paper to 7mm in thickness. Place in the fridge to chill for 15 mins until firm.
4. For the snowmen, remove one sheet of biscuit dough from the fridge and cut out 12x 5½cm circles and 12x 4½ cm circles.
5. Position the biscuits on the prepared baking trays in pairs with the bottom of the small circles overlapping the top of the large circles by about 1cm. Press firmly to join the two together to create the snowmen.
6. Add currants for the snowmen’s eyes and buttons.
7. Bake in the oven for 15-18 mins until lightly golden around the edges. Allow to cool on the baking tray before transferring to a cooling rack.
8. Lightly dust your work surface with icing sugar then roll out the coloured icing to about 2mm in thickness. Cut out strips to create the scarves then dab a little water on the back and stick to the biscuits.
9. For the reindeer, remove the second sheet of biscuit dough from the fridge and ask an adult to cut the dough into two wide strips using a sharp knife. Also ask them to cut each strip into six triangles.
10. Press two pretzels into the top two corners of each triangle to create antlers. Add two currants for the eyes and half a glacé cherry for the nose. Place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 15-18 mins until the biscuits are lightly golden around the edges.
11. Allow to firm up on the baking tray for a couple of mins before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

TIP: The dough can be frozen for up to three months, either rolled out as per Step 3 or you can simply roll it up into a ball and roll out once defrosted.