Orange Cinnamon Butter Biscuits

Ingredients

• 350 g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 250 g cold, unsalted butter (or vegan block butter) (cubed)
• finely grated zest of 2 oranges
• 150 g icing (powdered) sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg yolk (omit for vegan) ((save the white for the royal icing))
• 1-2 tsp milk/non-dairy milk (as needed)
• 235 g icing (powdered) sugar (sifted)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice (and more as needed)
• 1 large egg white (reserved from making the biscuits) (or 5 teaspoons aquafaba)

Instructions

1. 1

   --- Orange Cinnamon Butter Biscuits: ---

2. 2

   Place the flour, salt, butter and orange zest in a food processor and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar and cinnamon and blitz again to mix through.

3. 3

   Add the vanilla extract and egg yolk and blend again. If the dough doesn't come together then add a little bit of milk, a teaspoon at a time until it does. Be careful not to add too much liquid though, stop as soon as the dough begins to clump together.

4. 4

   Shape the dough into two discs, wrap in clingfilm and pop them in the fridge for half an hour.

5. 5

   Roll the discs out on a lightly floured surface to about 4mm thick and use floured cutters to cut out your choice of shapes. Place them slightly spaced apart on a couple of baking trays lined with baking parchment.

6. 6

   Re-roll the scraps and cut out more shapes. Place the baking trays in the freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

7. 7

   Bake the frozen biscuits for about 10 minutes, until lightly golden. Leave to cool on the trays for 5 minutes then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

8. 8

   --- Royal Icing: ---

9. 9

   Once the biscuits are cool, make the royal icing. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon juice. Stir in the egg white or aquafaba a little at a time until the icing is smooth and thick but pipe-able; if you drizzle some back into the bowl the pattern should disappear after about 8 seconds. If it is too thick then add a little more egg white (or lemon juice if you've run out), and if it is too runny then add a little more sifted icing sugar.

10. 10

    Spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a 1mm plain round nozzle. Pipe snowflake designs onto the biscuits (Pinterest is a great place to get inspiration for patterns!) and set them aside for half an hour to dry.