Gemma 
🎄☃️✨ Welcome to Day 22 of Blogmas At Home! It’s 3 days until Christmas and angels are getting their wings left, right and CENTRE. ✨☃️🎄
Today’s post is the final recipe of Blogmas At Home 2023, which is kind of sad, but also not that sad, because these Iced Star Biscuits are the dreamiest, easiest Christmas Cookies ever. I’ve been making these biscuits in all shapes and sizes for YEARS because they are so simple (I mean, they only require 5 ingredients, one of those ingredients is literally WATER and the dough is made in the food processor!), but they are also so delicious. In the original recipe, they are called ‘Birthday Biscuits’, so we still call them that, but I’m making these star shaped ones for Christmas- they’re really a year-round cookie! Also, the possibilities for decorating them are ENDLESS. I’ve just done plain, white glacé icing on these, to keep things simple, but you could use royal icing, fondant, chocolate, buttercream, literally ANYTHING. It’s such a versatile recipe!
Table of Contents
- Ingredients
- Making the Biscuit Dough
- Cutting out the Cookies
- Baking the Cookies
- Decorating the Cookies
- Storing the Cookies
- Recipe
Ingredients
As you might have guessed from the title of this post, these cookies only require 5 ingredients:
- Plain flour
Don’t use self-raising flour, because this will cause the biscuits to puff up, rather than bake into nice even biscuits- not what you want!
- Caster sugar
I use golden caster sugar, because it gives the cookies a lovely depth of flavour, but you can use white caster sugar, if that’s what you have.
- Unsalted butter
The butter needs to be cubed and at room temperature, so that it incorporates into the other ingredients properly.
- Icing sugar
You only need icing sugar and water to make glacé icing, which is what I used to decorate these biscuits.
- Water
Does water even count as an ingredient? I have no idea, but my brother threw a fit when he heard I was calling these ‘4-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits’ and I was guilted into changing the name. I’ll forgive him, because 5-Ingredient sounds better anyway.
You will also need a star-shaped cookie cutter. The one I used was 5.5cm across. You can use any size/shape cutter you would like, but be aware this will affect the quantity of cookies this recipe makes, as well as the baking time.
Making the Biscuit Dough
Start by preheating the oven to 180°C (as usual, I am using a conventional oven) and line 3 baking trays with baking paper, then set aside.
To make the dough, put the flour, sugar and softened, cubed butter into the bowl of a food processor.
Blitz the mixture until it forms crumbs…
…then pulse until it comes together in a ball. That’s it! That’s the dough! Bring it together with your hands (after removing the food processor blade, of course), then it’s ready to roll- no chilling necessary.
Cutting out the Cookies
Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and tip the dough onto it. Dust both the surface of the dough and a rolling pin with a little more flour, then roll the dough out until it is about 5mm thick.
Cut out the cookies using the star cutter, carefully transferring them to the lined baking trays as you go. Re-roll the dough as needed.
Baking the Cookies
Once all of the dough has been used up, bake the cookies. They will need about 10 minutes in the preheated oven and should be a pale, golden colour when they are ready.
Allow the cookies to cool for about 5 minutes on the trays, then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely, before decorating.
Decorating the Cookies
First, make the glacé icing. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl (this is important to get rid of any lumps), then add 2 tbsp of the water and stir to combine. Sometimes it can be a little tricky to get the perfect consistency of glacé icing, so it’s best to start with some of the water, then gradually add more until the perfect consistency is achieved. You want it to be thick enough that it doesn’t all slide off the cookies, but not so thick that it doesn’t have a smooth, shiny finish.
Once you have made the icing, spoon it onto the cookies and spread it out, so that it fills the star shape. Place the cookies back onto the wire rack to set- glacé icing will never set completely solid, like royal icing does, but it will form a delicate crust after about 20 minutes.
Storing the Cookies
Store the cookies in an airtight container, at room temperature. Like this, they will keep for 2-3 days. Ideally, store them in a single layer, to prevent the delicate icing from being smushed (or, you know, be like me and completely disregard that suggestion…).
I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe- these cookies really are the simplest treatsntil your desired consistency is achieved- to make, but they are completely delicious, so really it’s a win-win! Let me know if you try this out- I’d love to hear what you think!
Gemma
xxx
Recipe
5-Ingredient Iced Star Biscuits
Equipment
- 1 5.5cm star cookie cutter
Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
- 250 g plain flour
- 85 g golden caster sugar
- 175 g unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature.
For the icing:
- 250 g icing sugar, sifted.
- 3-4 tbsp water
Instructions
Make the cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (conventional). Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set aside.
- Place all of the cookie dough ingredients into the bowl of a food processor. Blitz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then pulse until it forms a ball.
- Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Tip the dough onto the work surface and bring it together into a smooth ball with your hands. Dust both the dough and a rolling pin with a little more flour, then roll out the dough, until it is about 5mm thick.
- Use the star cutter to stamp out as many cookies as possible from the rolled-out dough, then re-roll and stamp again, carefully transferring the cookies to the lined baking trays as you go.
- Once you have used up all of the dough, bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, until pale golden. Once baked, allow the cookies to cool on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
Make the icing:
- When the cookies are cool, make the icing. Place the sifted icing sugar into a bowl. Add 2 tbsp of water and mix to combine. If needed, add more of the water until the desired consistency is achieved- the icing should be thick enough that it will not run off the cookies, but not so thick that it does not look smooth and shiny.
Decorate the cookies:
- As soon as the icing is ready, start decorating the cookies. Spoon a small amount of icing onto a cookie, then use the back of the spoon to spread it out over the surface, so that the whole star shape is filled. Repeat for the remaining cookies, setting them back onto the wire rack to sit while the icing firms up. This icing won't set as hard as royal icing, but it should form a delicate crust after about 20 minutes or so (if they last that long!).
- Store the cookies in an airtight container, ideally in a single layer, to prevent the icing from smushing, at room temperature. Like this, they will keep for 2-3 days (or longer, if they are left un-iced). Once kept for 24 hours, the icing will be significantly firmer and less likely to smush (though it will still not be as hard as royal icing).
