Easter biscuits
MAKES ABOUT 25 PREP AND COOKING TIME 1 HOUR
3 cups (450g) plain flour 1½ cups (330g) caster sugar 1 tablespoon ground ginger 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking soda 200g butter, melted 1 tablespoon golden syrup 1 egg, beaten lightly
ROYAL ICING 2 egg whites 4 cups (640g) icing sugar, sifted food colouring
1 Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir the wet into the dry ingredients and mix to a soft dough. Turn dough out onto bench and divide in half. Press each half into a flat disc; wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 20 minutes. 2 Roll each piece out between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of about 3mm. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until the dough is firm. 3 Preheat oven to 160°C (140°C fanforced). Using bunny and egg-shaped cutters, cut out shapes, lifting with a palette knife onto oven trays lined with baking paper, leaving 3cm between each. Re-roll leftover dough between sheets of baking paper, chill and cut more shapes. 4 Bake for about 15 minutes, rotating trays halfway through cooking time, or until firm. Stand biscuits on trays for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
5 ROYAL ICING Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until frothy. Add the sugar a little at a time until a stiff paste. Add about 2 teaspoons of water to thin down the icing. Divide the icing into four bowls. Tint with food colouring. We used yellow, blue and green and left one white. Spoon half of each colour into separate piping bags fitted with small plain tubes, cover surface of remaining icing with plastic wrap. 6 Pipe designs onto the biscuits and stand until set. You can outline the shape of the egg and “flood” the biscuit with icing for a fully coated appearance. To flood biscuits, mix remaining icing with about ¾ tsp water for each colour until thin enough to run slightly, use a palette knife to spread.
Uniced biscuits suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.