Note: This Butter Biscuit Cutout recipe was originally part of my Biscuit Advent Calendar, a one-recipe-a-day email series in December. I’m gradually turning those recipes into proper blog posts so they’re easier to find. You can find the other recipes and sign up for the next round if you want here.
These butter biscuits are the ones my children can almost make by themselves by now. I still have to help with rolling out the dough and providing emergency stamina, but the cutting and decorating is entirely their domain.
This is my go-to recipe when I make shortbread all year round and also the basis of many other biscuits. You can add cocoa powder, nuts, fillings, flavorings…the possibilities are endless. This is the base version.
Butter Biscuits
Crumbly buttery cutouts perfect for going wild on decoration
Makes about two trays
Ingredients
300g plain flour (1.5 cups)
200g Butter cold butter (about 1¾ sticks)
100g sugar (1/4 cup)
1 egg yolk (keep the white)
pinch of salt
To decorate: chocolate, sprinkles, icing sugar, food coloring, lemon juice, berry puree/powder, matcha,…
Instructions
Make the dough
Knead all ingredients together until the dough just comes together. Don’t work it any more than that, the less the better otherwise the butter melts and the biscuits become tougher. You can also grate the butter or use a blender to pulse it. Wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour
Cut
Preheat your oven to 180°C/355°F conventional or 160°C/320°F fan. Roll the dough to about 3mm thickness (that’s 3-4 credit cards). I place it in between two layers of cling film, so it doesn’t stick and do it in two batches. Cut out the shapes as desired. Reroll the dough until it is alll used up. If it gets too warm and sticky place it in the freezer (rolled out). Place the cutouts on a tray lined with baking paper.
Bake
Important: Chill the whole tray if possible. If it’s cold you can just place it outside, otherwise the freezer is fine, too.
Bake for 8-12 minutes until the edges are just starting to brown. Leave the biscuits to cool completely.
Tip: You can now leave the decorating to the next day or even later than that (in which case keep the biscuits in a sealed box until then.)
Decorate
We decorate ours with melted chocolate and sprinkles as well as icing made from powdered sugar and lemon juice or frozen berries that have been strained through a sieve. The acidity and fruitiness really balance out the sweetness. If you never made your own icing: you need a lot of sugar and not very much liquid so add it slowly. I think we used about a pack (250g/ 1 and 1/4 cup) of sugar today split between four colors.
Enjoy*!
*apart from cleaning up the kitchen if you let your children do it 😀
Tips & Tricks
Butter
For a tender shortbread, it’s important not to melt the butter while making the dough. Work fairly quickly and stop kneading as soon as the dough comes together. We’re making biscuits, not bread. I use cold butter straight from the fridge. If it’s very firm, you can grate it first, which makes it much easier to incorporate into the dough.
Eggs
This recipe uses only egg yolks. For shortbread-type biscuits, you can use either whole eggs or just the yolks. I generally try to balance my recipes so that the leftover yolks from one recipe can be used in another that calls for egg whites. Recipes that use lots of egg whites include macaroons, for example cinnamon stars.
Flour
Just as with the butter, try not to overwork the dough. Too much kneading encourages gluten development: the network that gives bread its lovely chewy structure. This is exactly the opposite of what we’re after here.
Hot and Cold
For sharp edges and crisp details (especially if you’re making stamped biscuits), cold dough and a properly preheated oven are your best friends. The colder the dough, the less opportunity the butter has to melt before the biscuits begin to set. So: preheat the oven properly and chill the baking tray before it goes in. If you’re baking several batches on the same tray, it’s worth letting the tray cool down again between batches.