Vanilla star biscuits

There’s something a little old school about a jam biscuit that is really appealing. Here we show you how to make some scrumptious vanilla star biscuits for Christmas gifts or afternoon tea. The perfect edible gift.

VANILLA STAR BISCUITS

Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 40 mins + chilling time
Makes: 20 biscuits

For these biscuits you will also need two different sized star cutters, or use your preferred shape cutter.

Ingredients

• 120g / 4 oz / 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 150g / ⅔ cup of caster sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp of vanilla essence
• 2 tsp of milk
• 200g / 1 ⅓ cups of self-raising flour, sifted
• 150g / 1 cup of plain flour, sifted
• ½ cup of raspberry or strawberry jam

Method

1. Cream together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually add in the eggs, vanilla and milk until combined.
3. On the lowest speed, slowly mix in the flours. Be careful not to over mix.
4. Scrape the mixture onto a large piece of cling film, and press into a flat rectangular shape.
5. Refrigerate for one hour.
6. Preheat oven to 160ºC / 325ºF / Gas mark 3.
7. Divide the chilled mix into quarters, keeping one quarter out and refrigerating the rest.
8. Rollout the portion on a well-floured bench, or between two pieces of baking/parchment paper to 5mm / ¼ inch thick.
9. Cut into large stars (or preferred shape) and place on a baking tray lined with baking/parchment paper.
10. Repeat with remaining mixture until finished. Return half of the biscuits to the refrigerator.
11. Cook half of the biscuits first for 8–10 minutes, the remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
12. With the other half, remove from the refrigerator and use a smaller star cutter to cut out the middle of the biscuits. Place the little stars on to another baking tray with baking paper. If you are wanting to string these biscuits up or tie them, use a skewer and pierce on point prior to cooking.
13. Cook the remaining biscuits and little stars for 8–10 minutes, then remove and place on the cooling rack.
14. To assemble, brush the top of the whole stars with jam and sandwich together with the larger cutout stars. Repeat until all larger starts are assembled.
15. Once the biscuits are sandwiched together, you may like to fill with extra jam using a teaspoon and knife to push the jam into the points of the stars.

TIP
Make these in the cooler part of the day as it is easier to roll out the biscuit mixture. This is a great standard vanilla biscuit recipe, and can be used for Christmas or any occasion, with or without the jam. You may wish to halve the quantities if making without jam.