Recipes using biscuit cutters

Please does anyone have an easy recipe that I can useto bake shaped biscuits - like gingerbread people etc.I haven't had much experience making this kind of thing so any helpful hints would also be welcome.

(making them for a small school fundraising fair), so presentation pointers would also be helpful).

Thanks in anticipation.

Ginger Biscuits.

This rolls out well if you dust surface with flour as necessary during the rolling out process.
Ideally have a cake mixer to do this as it helps to get the mixture to bind together. (My arm muscles seldom have that much omph when it comes to beating cookie dough.)
125 g butter.
1 egg
4 teaspoons ginger
1/2 T golden syrup
1 cup sugar
2 and 1/2 cupsflour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder.

1. Cream the butter and sugar and syrup.
2. Beat in the egg.
3. Add the dry ingredients and mix until the mixture balls up around the beater.
(It should be a play dough texture. If too sticky add a bit more flour 1 Tablespoon at a time.)
4.Roll out to 5-8 mm thick and cut your shapes. These will grow a little, so give them space and if you like them crunchy - 5mm thick, softer = roll thicker.
5. Alternatively, roll tablespoons full into balls and flatten with your hand or a fork. OR roll into a log and slice off cookies after chilling the mixture.
6. Bake @ 180 Celsius till golden [about 10-12 mins.] 160 Celsius if your oven is on fan bake.

This is halfthe original recipe to make small family size batch. (approx 30 cookies).It came from an "old girls college" recipe collection type of book from the 1940's where it used half a lb of butter, 4 rounded cups flour,and made a huge batch.

Cut out twice as many gingerbread men as you need. Use the second lot to cut out Shorts, shirts, pinafores, jackets, stockings, boots and shoes. Place these pieces ontop of the whole-cut gingerbread men. Use a garlic crusher and a ball of dough to create hair; shoelaces; and lace inserts. Bake. They'll come out in 3D.

If you want to throw money at the task, you can get icing pens in the cake decorating section of countdown, and you can just use them to draw on the details almost like you would use a felt.

If you want to entirely DIY, you'll want some disposable piping bags and to watch a few youtube videos on how to pipe icing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch!v=1a5eO0azeLU

Make royal icing with 1 egg white and enough icing sugar (maybe a cups worth ish) to get a consistency that will squeeze fairly easily through a small hole snipped in your piping bag, but not so runny that it pours out when you don't want it to.
Use this to "glue" on smarties for eyes and buttons. Draw the nose with it, and take some aside from your bowl and use a second piping bag to draw the mouths on after you've colored it pink or red with a drop of food coloring.

Shortbread makes good shaped biscuits

What a brilliant idea! Would never have thought to do that.will keep this tip up my sleeve for the next time I make Gingerbread men.

Tupperware Gingerbread Men

1/3 Cup soft brown sugar
30g butter
2 Tbsp golden syrup
1 Cup plain flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Place sugar, butter and golden syrup in a jug, cover and microwave on medium (600 watts) for 60 seconds. Remove, stir and microwave for another 20 seconds or until completely melted.
Sift flour, baking soda, ginger and cinnamon into the melted butter mixture. Add milk and with clean hands, press and squeeze mixture until dough is formed. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface and roll it to a thickness of 5mm.
Cut out gingerbread men and place on a tray lined with a baking sheet.
Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Let the gingerbread men cool down completely before decorating.

Quotesplitty (393 )10:36 am, Mon 12 Sep

More Gingerbread Men:
125g butter
100g firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg yolk
375g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
3 teaspoons ground ginger
125 ml golden syrup

Icing:
1 egg white
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

sultanas or raisins for decorating

Preheat oven to 180C. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat until combined.

Sift dry ingredients and stir into butter mixture with the golden syrup. Mix to a light dough and knead gently on a lightly floured surface until smooth.

Roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper until approximately 3 mm thick. Cut gingerbread men from the dough and place on baking paper on biscuit trays and bake for 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Re roll dough as many times as necessary. Cool on trays.

Combine the icing sugar gradually the egg white until smooth. Spoon into a piping bag or freezer bag with the corner snipped. Decorate biscuits as desired.

Quotecookessentials (1203 )

Thanks so much for all the help- love the 3D idea.I may try the more artistic icing options when I have more time to practice.

Bev thatnks for passing on those recipes, which look to be within my capabilities.

Camper 18 - I think you've just solves my problem about what to give my Dad for his birthday,

I am thinking of buying some of the ninjabread cutters which come as a set of 3 different shapes of martial arts shaped figures.