Lets start with the Butter Biscuit.
You'll need
375g Plain Flour (plus a little extra for dusting)
250g Butter, at room temp
140g Icing Sugar, Sifted
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 large Egg Yolk
How to make
Mix the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until its very pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and yolk, mixing well. Sift in the flour a little at a time and combine till the mixture forms a firm dough.
Using your hands, work the dough into a smooth ball. *The heat from your hands will help here*
Wrap the dough in cling film and pop it in the fridge for an hour or so.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c and grease 2 baking trays. I dusted mine with flour which I find works well with biscuits.
Flour the counter and roll out the dough till its about 5mm thick.
Now here's where you can change it up. Its time to cut the dough into the shape you want. The Iced Gem's I made were slightly larger than the ones you can buy in a packet as the smallest cutter (of sorts) I had was the holder to the piping bag. Improvisation is big in my kitchen
Place the cut dough onto the trays slightly spread apart and bake for about 10 minutes till they are a pale golden colour.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool ... Don't worry, they will harden up when they cool down.
While they are cooling you can get started on the Royal Icing.
You'll need
250g Icing Sugar, Sifted
1 large Egg White
1 tsp lemon juice
Food Colouring
How to make
Put the icing sugar, egg white and lemon juice in large bowl and whisk for about 3-4 minutes.
You're looking to have the mixture resembling nice peaks without being solid. If the mix is like concrete you will need to add a few drops of boiling water likewise if its too runny you'll need to add a little more sifted icing sugar.
Its not completely unsalvageable unless is starts to turn from white to a dull grey colour. If this happens, you've mixed to hard and its just gonna crumble. Trust me!
Divide out the mixture into the number of bowls for the number of colours you wish to use. *You could use just the one colour if your making them for a party to fit a theme i.e. blue for a boys baby shower etc but I like to get colourful*
Add a little of the colouring and mix gently.
Prepare your piping bag with a star nozzle. You can use the same bag over and over, washing between colours or you can use multiple bags, the choice is yours.
Fill the bag with your first colour and 'splodge' a dollop of the icing onto the middle on the cold biscuit. It doesn't need to be an exquisite design ... which adds to the ease of these biscuits.
Leave them to air dry for a couple of hours while intercepting sneaky boys trying to pinch one or five!
