, Step by step

Festive orange jam biscuit

These classic Linzer-inspired cookies make a beautiful and delicious festive treat for all the family to enjoy!

Mark Stower, Director of Food and Service

Preparation Time: 2.5 hours

Cooking Time: 30 mins

Serves: 10

Method

Step 1

Cream the butter and sugar together, add the egg yolk and grated orange zest.
Step 2

Add the flour and gently mix to create a dough. Form the dough into a large sausage shape and wrap in cling film and place into the fridge for 2 hours.
Step 3

Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out to a thickness of about 3 to 4mm. Cut shapes from your dough using your desired shape cutter. Create an equal amount of each shape, as each biscuit requires a top and a bottom. Cut a hole or a shape (using a small cutter) on half of the biscuits (these will be the top biscuit where you will see the jam through).
Step 4

Place the dough shapes onto a flat greased baking sheet and place into the oven at 160˚C for approximately 10 minutes or until light brown.
Step 5

Take out of the oven and leave to cool on the tray.
Step 6

Place a teaspoonful of jam onto the biscuit bases and spread the jam out a little. Dust some icing sugar over the biscuit tops, then place them onto the jam covered bases and squash them down a little until the jam oozes out of the cut shape.

Nutrition

The first biscuits were apparently made by the Romans. However by the Middle Ages, unsweetened biscuits which derives from the Latin ‘bis coctum’ and the French ‘bescuit’ meaning twice-baked, were used as a staple food to sustain mariners at sea and soldiers on the march.

By the 16th and 17th centuries when sugar became more widely available, sweetened Christmas Biscuits were popular throughout continental Europe and especially in Scandinavia and Germany, where many were made with additional spices, including cinnamon and ginger.

Later, in the 19th century, cookie cutters in festive shapes such as Christmas trees and stars, were imported from Germany and were used to make biscuit gifts that could be hung on the Christmas tree.

DR JULIET GRAY, COMPANY NUTRITIONIST