On Friday night Oli, Ma and I made biscuits. Oli was responsible for rolling and cutting out the shapes! He was very keen on the bell and the moon shapes and squashing the dough together!
I love cooking with small children, I think it’s important for children to be comfortable in the kitchen and to understand the effort that producing food takes. Oli is still a bit to young to really learn that lesson but he loves to make cakes and the eating afterwards!
Even if you don’t have a 2 year old to entertain, these are really simple and the dough can be frozen. They are from How to Eat (my favourite Nigella cookbook) and she suggests that you could use them to decorate the Christmas tree. For the chocolate version leave out the cinnamon and use 25g of cocoa and 175g of flour.
The Biscuits
From How to Eat
What
300g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
100g butter
100g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
60g golden syrup
How
1) Put everything except the syrup and eggs in the food processor and mix until it looks like crumble
2) Add the eggs and syrup and blend until the dough comes together.
3) At this point you can just wrap the dough up in clingfilm and leave in the fridge or freezer until you need it. However, if you’re going to make biscuits now. Heat the oven to 160°C/Gas 3/320F.
4) Divide the dough, wrap half in cling film and put it in the fridge.
5) Flour a board or work surface, rolling pin and the very sticky dough. (Don’t worry it will get smoother as you re-roll it, this dough takes a lot of flour and a lot of handling, which is why it’s so perfect for small children!)
6) Roll to about 5mm thick and cut your shapes. Keep doing this until you’ve used all the dough or you’ve filled a baking tray.
7) The biscuits take anywhere from 12 to 20 minutes to cook. They will harden as they cool.
8) You can eat them as they are or ice and cover in sprinkles!
Nic Dempsey 