It's two weeks today!! I hope you're all singing songs, drinking mulled wine, running around in an elf costume... just me? Ah well I hope you're well and truly in the Christmas spirit!
Last weekend one of my best friends hosted a Christmas tea party (watch out for the photos of this truly amazing event, coming to the blog soon) which gave me a brilliant excuse to make these adorable Rudolph shortbread biscuits for my girls. I've been wanting to try making shortbread for a while and adding a Christmas theme just made the experience even more fun.
Naturally, these were no where near the standard of my friend's tea party food (you'll understand when you see the pics) but they were something cute to give my friends to take home with them. Whether you're a child, big kid, or plain old adult, there's always room in your life for a Rudolph-themed biscuit. You know I'm right.
Based on a recipe in the Christmas issue of BBC GoodFood mag.
For Rudolph shortbread, you will need (makes 8 biscuits):
200g salted butter
2 tablespoon vanilla extract
85g golden caster sugar
225g plain flour
85g polenta
8 red smarties
16 chocolate chips
1 teaspoon icing sugar
8 clear sandwich bags (preferably the fold over ones, rather than the sealable ones)
8 brown pipe cleaners (e.g. here)
Heat your butter in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it. Put into a mixing bowl with the vanilla and sugar.
Stir together really well, until smooth. Ish.
Stir in the polenta and flour.
The mixture will get quite dry, so after a bit of stirring, chuck the spoon aside and get your hands in to stick that dough together. I'm all about getting your hands covered in dough at the mo. Once you have a ball of dough, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Squash down with your hands. The dough, not the tray.
Get a rolling pin, dust with flour, and roll the dough out flat. Don't worry about it looking neat (my general motto in life) but try not to roll it too thin as your edges might crumble a bit (as mine did). Get a plate approximately 23cm wide and place it on top of the dough. Use this as a template and trim round the edge with a knife, so you end up with a neat circle.
Use a knife to mark out the eight biscuits, like pizza slices. Then use a fork to press all around the edge of the circle.
Cover the tray with clingfilm and put in the fridge for half an hour. When done, cook in a pre-heated over at 180c for 20-25 minutes, until golden.
Leave to cool completely. Go out and do something so you're not tempted to munch on warm shortbread... When cooled, cut into the eight slices.
Mix your icing sugar in with a very small amount of water. You want it to be thick and sticky.
Dip your chocolate chips and smarties into the icing sugar, and use it like glue to stick them onto your shortbread. Use the smarties as Rudolph's red nose and the chocolate chips as the eyes.
Once the icing has dried, carefully put each of the biscuits into a sandwich bag. Twist the top of the bag and secure by tying it up with a pipe cleaner. Then shape your pipe cleaners to make the antlers! Give as gifts, hide in the tree or eat yourself...
Admit it, they're really quite cute!
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