Makes 20 portions / easy to bake / 30 mins Recipe from Dr. Oetker
Ingredients
For the biscuit dough;
- 200g honey
- 100g caster sugar
- 15ml water (1 tbsp)
- 250g Plain Flour
- 250g Rye Flour
- 5g Dr. Oetker baking powder (1 tsp)
- 2.5g Dr. Oetker bicarbonate of soda (1.2 tsp)
- 1g ground cinnamon (1/2 tsp)
- 5g ground ginger (2 tsp)
- 1 medium egg (beaten)
- 70ml whole milk
- 50g unsalted butter (softened)
To decorate;
- Dr. Oetker white decorating icing
- Dr. Oetker gold decorating icing
Recipe
Step 1: Pop the honey, sugar and water into a saucepan over a low heat and stir until all the sugar has dissolved, leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.
Step 2: In a large bowl, mix the flours, Baking Powder, Bicarbonate of Soda, cinnamon and ginger. Pour in the egg, milk, butter and honey mixture and mix together to form a dough – you can do this by hand but it is easier with a freestanding mixer with the dough hook attachment. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for approx. 2 hours.
Step 3: Pre-heat your oven to 180°C/160°C/Gas Mark 4 and line 2-3 baking trays with greaseproof paper. Roll out your dough on a floured surface to approx. ½cm thickness and cut out using different festive cutters. Brush your biscuits with milk and bake for about 10 minutes.
Step 4: Leave to cool on the trays for about 15 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 5: Once your biscuits are cooled use the White and Gold Decorating Icings to decorate your biscuits!
You can find the full recipe on-site here – https://www.oetker.co.uk/uk-en/recipe/r/lebkuchen-biscuits
There is also a traditional Christmas biscuit recipe available here – https://www.oetker.co.uk/uk-en/recipe/r/christmas-biscuits
We also have some general biscuit making and decorating tips to help you along;
Baking Biscuits
- Chilling your biscuit dough before you bake it, helps prevent your biscuits from spreading as they bake and therefore losing their shape.
- Roll out your biscuit dough between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper, this stops the dough from sticking to the work surface and rolling pins meaning you don’t need to coat your dough in flour.
- Don’t overwork your biscuit dough, this will mean your biscuit has a lovely crumbly texture.
- Don’t roll your biscuits too thin as this will result in an uneven surface when they bake and make them more tricky to decorate.
Decorating Biscuits
- Use piping bags with a small hole cut out of the end when decorating biscuits, whether it’s flooding the top or adding detail, this gives you much more control and makes the icing easier to apply to the biscuit.
- Sit down comfortably at a table, this will make it more comfortable and easier to decorate your biscuits.
- Take your time, don’t rush especially if some parts of your design need to be set before you add more detail.
- Make sure your biscuits are properly set and dry before wrapping up – you don’t want to smudge the designs you’ve spent ages creating!
