Floral biscuits

Sugarpaste isn’t the only way of making pretty edible flowers. Here we’ve coloured biscuit dough to create beautiful blooms that aren’t too sweet!

The perfect treat to pop in the biscuit tin (without the fear of icing clumping and sticking), these biscuits offer a novel floral treat. Take a look at the recipe below.

Preparation time: 1 hour plus chilling

Baking time: 8-10 mins

Makes: 30 biscuits

Ingredients:

• 220g butter, softened
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 435g plain flour
• Gel food colouring

Method:

1. Line 2-3 baking trays with baking paper and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg then add the flour and bring together to form a smooth dough.
2. Lightly dust your work surface with dough then roll out 2/3 of the dough to a thickness of approx 3mm. Cut into 6cm diameter circles using a fluted cutter. Transfer to the prepared baking trays leaving a little space between them to allow for spreading. Lightly press a slightly smaller fluted cutter, centred, a little way into each biscuit to create an imprint around the edge.
3. Divide the remaining dough into three equal portions. Use gel food colouring to colour one portion green, one portion yellow and one portion orange. Knead well to ensure the colour is even.
4. To make the roses, roll a piece of yellow or orange dough in the palm of your hand into a sausage shape approx 1.5cm wide and 6cm long. For a larger flower make a longer, fatter sausage. Using the length of your forefinger, flatten and thin one long edge of the sausage. Starting from one end, roll up the sausage to form a rose. Snip off the excess dough at the base of the flower using scissors which flattens the base so the flower will sit neatly on the biscuit.
5. To make the leaves, roll a piece of green dough into a small ball and press lightly with a fingertip to flatten. Pinch together one end to form the pointed tip. Use a knife to lightly mark a vein down the centre.
6. Arrange the flowers and leaves on the fluted biscuits then chill for 30 mins until the dough is firm. Towards the end of this time preheat the oven to 200˚C/180˚C fan/gas mark 6. Bake for 5-7 mins then carefully cover with foil and bake for another 3 mins until the biscuits are a very light golden brown.
7. Allow to cool on the trays for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Top tip! Gel food colourings are ideal for colouring the dough as they are heat stable and won’t alter the consistency of the dough considerably.