Rainbow Squiggle Biscuits
Keep little ones occupied with these bright and jolly iced biscuits made from everyday food cupboard ingredients. My rainbows have five colours instead of the standard seven, but I'm sure three or four colours will suffice if you want to keep things simple!
Ingredients:
For the biscuits:
100g sugar
200g butter/baking margarine
300g plain flour
1⁄2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla paste/essence
2 tbs milk
For the icing:
300g icing sugar
cold water
food colourings: yellow, orange, pink, blue and green
Equipment:
large mixing bowl
small mixing bowl
4 small bowls (cereal bowls will do)
wooden spoon
Tala circular cutter set – choose largest and smallest cutters
rolling pin
large sharp knife
measuring spoons
2 baking sheets
baking parchment
Tala disposable piping bags
Yield: 28-35 rainbow biscuits
1. Line the baking trays with baking parchment
2. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add flour and salt and mix together until very dry and crumbly.
4. Mix in the vanilla and milk until you have a stiff dough.
5. Dust your work surface lightly with four and roll out the dough to a thickness of about 5mm.
6. Cut circles with the larger cutter, then cut a smaller circle out of the middle of each circle to resemble ring doughnuts.
7. Cut each ring in half to make arched rainbow shapes.
8. Gather the scraps into a ball, re-roll and repeat the cutting process
9. Arrange the rainbows on a lined baking tray, allowing a little space between each one.
10. Chill for 10 minutes while you set the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (320 Fahrenheit).
11. When the oven reaches temperature, bake the biscuits for 14-16 minutes until they are golden brown.
12. Allow the biscuits to cool on the trays while you get started on the icing.
13. Place the icing sugar in a small mixing bowl and add enough water to make paste – not too stiff but not so runny that you can't pipe with it.
14. Divide the icing between this bowl and the 4 cereal bowls, mix a different colour into each and transfer each batch into its own piping bag.
15. Snip off the end of each bag so that there is a tiny hole and decorate your rainbows with colourful squiggles, lines, dots and dashes! If you need some inspiration, try copying my squiggly rainbow lines – they don't need to be neat!
Happy indoor baking!