/getattachment/07a91a39-233e-4eaa-bbcb-bcc2fea3532c/Festive-Spicy-Biscuits.aspx

Festive Spicy Biscuits Recipe

Bake a batch of these spicy, festive-flavour biscuits for a Year-End gift for your favourite teachers - they will appreciate the personal touch and the time taken in preparing a gift for them to enjoy during the holiday.

Difficulty

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cooking Time

15 minutes

Serves

makes approx 40

Recipe Ingredients

  • 200 g SPAR butter, at room temperature
  • 315 ml light brown sugar
  • 1 large SPAR egg
  • 675 ml SPAR cake flour (380 g)
  • 3 ml bicarbonate of soda
  • 5 ml ground cinnamon
  • 2 ml ground nutmeg
  • 2 ml mixed spice
  • 25 ml glace´ cut peel
  • 2 ml almond essence
  • 75 g tub mixed glace´ cherries, finely chopped
  • 125 ml nibbed almonds
  • Optional: 100 g white chocolate, for decorating

Recipe Method

  1. Cream together the butter, sugar and egg thoroughly, in a SPAR Good Living 3 litre porcelain mixing bowl.
  2. Blend in the remaining ingredients to achieve a soft dough that comes away cleanly from the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for ½ hour.
  3. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Place a SPAR Good Living silicone baking mat on a baking tray.
  4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Press out gently using floured hands, to 5 mm thickness.
  5. Cut out shapes using the selection of SPAR Good Living cookie cutters. Transfer them to the baking mat, spaced fairly close together.
  6. Bake for 15 minutes. *The little gingerbread men only need 10-12 minutes.
  7. Using a SPAR Good Living small turner, transfer them onto a cake cooling rack.
  8. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over hot water. Working with one cooled biscuit at a time, dip each biscuit briefly into the chocolate, just long enough to coat half of each one evenly. Transfer onto a clean SPAR Good Living silicone baking mat, and leave to set.
  9. Alternatively, pipe the melted chocolate across each biscuit in patterns of your choice. Use a plastic sandwich bag containing the melted chocolate, with a pin-head size hole snipped off one bottom corner.

Hints & Tips

-SPAR brick margarine may be used as substitute for the butter, but do not expect the same superior flavour.
-If you know the recipient of your gift also enjoys baking, pack the uncooked dough shaped into a suitable new clean jar, with the cookie cutter set attached on the outside, and brief baking instructions pegged on attractively.