These biscuits pack all the taste of Easter into a bite size treat with marzipan, chocolate and a touch of spice.
Sugar and Spice Easter Nest Biscuits – By Dr.Oetker
Preparation time: 45 minutes plus cooling – Cooking time: 12 minutes – Serves: 12 Ingredients
- 65g (2 ½ oz) Lightly salted butter, softened
- 50g (2oz) Caster sugar
- 1 Medium egg yolk
- 5ml (1tsp) Dr Oetker Natural Madagascan Vanilla Extract
- 125g (4 ½ oz) Plain flour + extra for dusting
- 5g (1tsp) Ground mixed spice
- 40g (1 ½ oz) Currants
To Decorate
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- 200g (7oz) Dr Oetker Natural Marzipan
- Icing sugar to dust
- Dr Oetker Pink, Blue, Green and Yellow Food Colour Gels
- 30ml (2tbsp) Smooth apricot jam or clear honey
- Dr Oetker Chocolate Easy Swirl Icing
Method
- Line a large baking tray with baking parchment. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and whisk together well until smooth and creamy. Whisk in the egg yolk and Vanilla Extract.
- Sift the flour and spice on top and add the currants. Mix all the ingredients together until well combined, and then bring the mixture together with your hands to make a fairly soft dough.
- Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth. Roll out thinly to a thickness no greater than ½ cm (1/4 inch). Using a 6cm (2 ½ inch) crinkle edged round cutter, stamp out 12 rounds, re-rolling as necessary and place on the baking trays, spaced a little apart. Prick with a fork. Chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200˚C (180˚C fan assisted oven, 400˚F, gas mark 6).
- Bake the biscuits for about 12 minutes until lightly golden round the edges. Leave on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To decorate, knead the Marzipan a little to make it smooth and pliable. Reserving 150g (5oz) Marzipan, divide the remaining Marzipan into 4 equal portions. For each colour, flatten a piece of Marzipan and add a drop Food Colour Gel. Fold the Marzipan over the Colour Gel and knead gently until the colour is well blended. Continue adding more Colour Gel as required.
- Divide each colour into 12 pieces and form each piece into a tiny egg shape. Leave aside.
- Lightly dust the work top with icing sugar, and roll out the uncoloured Marzipan thinly. Use the same crinkle-edge cutter to stamp out 12 rounds of Marzipan, re-rolling as necessary. Brush the tops of the biscuits with jam or honey and stick a Marzipan disc on top.
- Prepare the can of Easy Swirl Icing as directed and fit the star nozzle on top. Pipe a small swirl in the centre of each biscuit to resemble a nest, and fill with the tiny Marzipan eggs. Your Easter biscuits are now ready to serve and enjoy.
TIP:
- Roll out the biscuit dough as thinly as possible in order to achieve a crisp baked biscuit.
- If you’re not a fan of dried fruit, why not use Dr Oetker Dark Chocolate Chips instead.
- For more natural eggs (non coloured) to your biscuits, leave the Marzipan uncoloured before making the eggs and then carefully toast the tops of the eggs with a cook’s blow torch before putting them in the Icing nests.
