When I was little I used to love Iced Gems, a little round biscuit with a swirl of crunchy icing on top. mmm. I don't see them now, but here's my homemade ones.
This is a really good, easy basic biscuit recipe, useful for loads of different shape, then topped with a variety of things. Icing in loads of different decoration is good. My kids love these plain, they get all my sprinkles, marshmallows and icing pens and go mad decorating them, much more fun than eating them!!
Biscuits
125g Butter
125g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp vanilla
250g Plain Flour
Preheat the oven to 170C fan.
Mix the butter and sugar until creamy.
Add the egg and vanilla and mix in.
Stir in the flour in two halves.
Kneed until smooth, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for half an hour.
Roll out on a well floured surface.
Use a small circle cutter to cut out the biscuits.
Re roll the trimmings, chilling again if necessary.
Bake the biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet for 10-15 minutes.
Cool and prepare the icing.
For the icing you need a stiff peak royal icing, here's how:
Stiff Peak royal icing
250g icing Sugar
1 egg white
1/2 tsp lemon juice
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and using an electric beater mix for about 6 minutes.
It will be really stiff, not at all sloppy and won't drop off a spoon.
You can now colour it as you wish.
Put into a piping bag, use a closed star nozzle and pipe a rose onto each biscuit.
Leave for half an hour for the icing to firm up.
Stor any remaining icing in a sealed tub in the fridge, it may need beating agin to use it.
