Vanilla Sugar Biscuits

Sometimes, it's nice to make something simple. And these biscuits are just that. Incredibly moreish and buttery with crisp edges and sugary icing, they are fun to make and the dough is easy to roll out. Sometimes I've had trouble with biscuit doughs being too soft, or being too dry and crumbling and cracking a I've rolled them. But I had no such issue with these.

For this recipe, I remembered those beautiful biscuits that Miranda made of the Great British Bake Off, and I decided to scour the internet for her very recipe. I was in luck and managed to find it on her blog. 

Here's the recipe I adapted from Miranda Gore's blog: 

Ingredients:

200g/8oz softened butter

200g/8oz white caster sugar

1 large free range egg

400g/14oz plain flour

2 tsp of vanilla extract 

This recipe makes a lot of biscuits, so I'd suggest freezing half the dough if you don't want to make so many. I managed about 30 biscuits, as I didn't roll them out twice. 

Method:

1. Cream butter, sugar & vanilla seeds until creamy and beat in the egg 

2. Add flour and mix on low speed until dough forms. 

3. Roll into two balls, wrap in cling film and chill for at least one hour. 

4. Roll out and cut into chosen shapes (now I wish I had a more interesting array of cutters!). Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Chill again if time. 

5. Line baking tray with baking parchment. Bake for approx 10 mins – until golden brown at the edges. 

6. Cool on a wire rack. For the icing I simply mixed up some royal icing with a little water until thick but liquid enough to spread onto biscuits. Colour the icing with whatever colours you wish. 

7. Decorate, leave to set and enjoy.