Kitchen Project #122: Christmas Biscuit Bonanza
WE'RE BACK FOR 2023!
Hello,
Welcome to today’s edition of Kitchen Projects. Thank you so much for being here.
I cannot WAIT for you to get stuck into today’s newsletter. Writing the Christmas Biscuit Bonanza for you has become one of my favourite traditions, and I’m thrilled to be bringing you eight new recipes for all your festive baking needs.
You’ll find half of the recipes, including a special guest recipe, below, while the other half is available on KP+ now. When it comes to biscuits, more is more, right?
What’s KP+? Well, it’s the level-up version of this newsletter. By joining KP+, you will support the writing and research that goes into the newsletter (including the commissioning - and fair payment - of all the writers), join a growing community, access extra content (inc., the entire archive) and more. Subscribing is easy and only costs £5 per month. Why not give it a go? Come and join the gang!
Love,
Nicola
PSST… I’ve written a book!
SIFT: The Elements of Great Baking is out next May and is available to pre-order now. Across 350 pages, I'll guide you through the fundamentals of baking and pastry through in-depth reference sections and well over 100 tried & tested recipes with stunning photography and incredible design. SIFT is the book I wish I'd had when I first started baking and I can’t wait to show you more.
All I want for Christmas is…. biscuits
When the temperature drops and it's dark by 4pm, it means only one thing. It's time to bake Christmas biscuits.
A long-time biscuit obsessive, I really feel like early December is my time to shine. Retreating to my kitchen, I can happily while away the hours making biscuits. A happy consequence is a generous quantity of very giftable goodies. Welcome to the Christmas Biscuit Bonanza! Back in business for the third year running, I'm delighted to share a series of brand-new recipes to bring you joy.
So, to pose one of the great philosophical questions of modern life…What even is a Christmas biscuit? Can anything be a festive biscuit, or are there rules? And if there are rules, is there reason?! Must they be whimsical? Should they have spice? And WHY are nuts so festive?!
The jury is out. I asked the question on Instagram, and the answers were… as you might imagine, incredibly varied. From spice being ‘essential’ to ‘needing to look good dusted in icing sugar’, to the generously unspecific, 'they must have festive spirit', there's a whole range of opinions. My friend Tim has written a full-blown manifesto on the subject.
While, on the surface, the British 'biscuit' and American' cookie' have the same meaning, there's a gulf between them. British biscuits, at least at Christmas, tend to be more austere - a shortbread dipped in chocolate is plenty festive for us. This is, of course, compared to the standard American cookies, which are generous with sprinkles and whimsy. There's also the complexities surrounding the language - biscuits mean something very different between the US and UK, as do cookies. German Christmas biscuits, as far as I know, tend towards richly spiced and soft tender gingerbread, while the icing sugar-dusted crescent cookie, the vanillekipferl, is popular in Austria and Hungary and common in the surrounding countries.
I'm sad to say I haven't visited many other countries around Christmas time, meaning I'm not that familiar with traditions around the world. I'd LOVE to know what your classic Christmas cookie is. Let me know in the comments below.
The 2023 Christmas Biscuit Bonanza Selection
For this year's selection, I've looked back into the biscuits of my past, the gold-tinned selections that have been a fixture of every Lamb Christmas for as long as I can remember. What I've come up with is a selection that range in shape and spicing. Let’s get to know each one a little better:
Brown Butter Apple Spiced rolls: An homage to the fig roll, this spiced dough enveloping sticky apple jam with toasted walnuts is finished with a brown butter glaze and fresh nutmeg.
Vanilla & Mocha rolled tuiles (recipe on KP+): Endlessly adaotable, ultra crisp and buttery rolled biscuits
Soft, sticky toffee cookie (recipe on KP+): Your favourite dessert converted to a soft, tender cookie with a sticky glaze. DREAMS DO COME TRUE!
Citrus sticks with candy cane icing: A classic butter cookie bolstered with lemon juice and lots of zest and rosemary, finished with a zingy icing.
Date, chocolate & peanut salted dunkers: Every biscuit selection needs something you can dip in hot chocolate because - tis the season everyone.
Rich chocolate sandwich biscuit (recipe on KP+): My take on the bourbon: Two thin, bitter cocoa biscuits with great snap with a rich fudgy filling. You can also dip in toasted coconut for a little bit of extra flair.
Pecan, miso & honey sable (recipe on KP+): A snappy thin biscuit that can take a dark bake! Based on the flavour of my thanksgiving tart, this is a surprisingly complex biscuit for the selection
PLUS a guest recipe from a truly brilliant biscuit baker. And bonus, it also uses up egg whites!: Cacao Nib Ricciolini by Sarah Lemanski of Nova Bakehouse.
Want more biscuit inspiration? Check out the Christmas biscuit bonanza from 2021 and 2022. There are over 20 recipes waiting for you in those archives!
General tips and notes on storage
Unless stated, none of these biscuit doughs need to have the butter and sugar creamed for a long time before mixing - you want the mixture to feel airy but nowhere near 'white' or overly lightened. Starting with butter at the correct temperature is going to help you here - look for 20c-21c. You should be able to beat the butter easily with a firm spatula - it should have a creamy texture and easily incorporate into the other ingredients.
As Tim pointed out in his manifesto (linked above) it's important to store these biscuits carefully. Like with like only! Soft apple biscuits should be kept with other soft things (I suppose they would be happy with the sticky toffee cookie), but NEVER around something crisp. It'll completely ruin the texture. Same for anything iced - leave these in their own container for storage.
Brown Butter Apple Spiced rolls
This was quite a humbling development experience.
This cookie lived about 4 different lives before I ended up with the final version. It has ended up as the most grown-up biscuit on the list, the kind I'd definitely have vehemently avoided as a younger person but now I am quite interested in. I started by making a reduced apple jam, which is basically a super thick apple butter - you have to cook it for a long time, until you can drag a spatula through it and the jammy seas stay parted.
Before landing on the fig roll adjacent cookie, I'd first envisioned this reduced apple jam to sit inside a thumbprint cookie, which I'd dip in caramel, creating a bite-size tart tatin-inspired cookie. The problem was sugar. Way. Too. Sweet. I was heartbroken. I was really sure I'd come up with something genius. I backed away a bit, as is my advice always when you're working on a creative project (STEP AWAY FROM THE OVEN/LAPTOP, etc.), and something else came into focus: A butter apple palmier sounds great, doesn't it? I made a rough puff pastry and spread the jam thickly on it before rolling up and baking.
Alas - I'd somehow forgotten that, cooked at a high temp, jam (especially if thinly spread) turns rock hard. To get the pastry crisp but the filling to stay jammy was not going to happen - not in this size and shape, anyway. I won't give up, but for this week's newsletter I knew better and backed away, once again.
Finally, I decided to make up a simple speculoos-inspired spiced dough, and I wrapped it around the thick apple jam for some BFRE (Big Fig Roll Energy). The result? PRETTY. GOOD. But something was missing… I mixed up a brown butter cinnamon glaze, and suddenly, this recipe was ticking all the boxes.
To make the recipe make more sense from a making perspective, I adjusted the biscuit dough to use brown butter, too. And, because I felt the apple jam was a bit sweet, I added a layer of toasted walnuts between the layers. It rounds off the flavour and makes these a very satisfying, traditional feeling but still modern christmas biscuit. It's certainly the most involved biscuit, so I'd suggest doubling the yield to make it worthwhile.
The recipe
Makes 12
Apple jam
250g Apples (weight after prep). I use a variety that goes mushy, like russets.
130g Light brown sugar
85g Water
20g Lemon juice
½ tsp Flaky salt
Browned butter
120g Butter
Biscuit dough
55g Brown butter, solidified but softened
30g Icing sugar
15g Milk
15g Egg Yolk (about one)
85g Plain flour
¼ tsp cinnamon
1/8th tsp ginger
1/8th tsp allspice
1/8th tsp nutmeg
1/8th tsp fine salt
Filling
150g Apple Jam
30g Toasted walnuts
Glaze
30g Brown butter, soft
50g Icing sugar
10-30g Milk
1/8th tsp Cinnamon
¼ tsp Flaky salt
To finish
Freshly grated nutmeg
Method
For the apple jam, start by peeling, coring and cubing the apples. Add into a saucepan with water and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until the apples are very soft. Cool for 5 minutes, then blend with an immersion blender until it is relatively smooth. You still want some texture for the apples, but try not to leave any big bits.
Return the apple jam to the stove and cook over low heat, stirring regularly, until well reduced - you want it to be so thick that you can drag a spoon or spatula through the mixture, and it won't immediately fill in. This might take up to 30 minutes, depending on your batch size. Just be patient. Pour into a heat-safe container and cover with cling film to prevent it from forming a skin. Leave to cool completely, around 2 hours. This will last in the fridge for 2 weeks.
For the browned butter, click here for the method.
For the biscuit dough, cream the butter and icing sugar together until combined then stir through the egg yolk followed by the milk. It might look a bit split but don't worry. Sift over the flour, spices and salt and stir to make a dough.
Smoosh dough into between two pieces of paper and roll it into a rectangle, about 30cm x 16cm and 0.3cm thick. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes until firm but pliable.
Chop the walnuts finely and sprinkle half down the middle of the dough. Place apple jam on top, followed by the rest of the walnuts. Fold the top half of the biscuit dough over the apple jam, pressing lightly to seal. Bring the bottom half up and fuse together. Wrap and place into the fridge to chill for an hour.
Preheat oven to 160c fan. Slice the apple log into 3cm pieces and place onto the tray. Bake for 20-22 minutes, turning half way, or until golden. You can go quite dark on these.
Leave to cool completely. To make the glaze, melt the brown butter, sift over the icing sugar and whisk until smooth, followed by the cinnamon and salt. Adjust texture with milk until it is runny but thick enough that it won’t run off immediately (test a couple!)
Dip the apple biscuits into the glaze, wiping off the excess. Finish with a fresh grating of nutmeg.
Citrus sticks with candy cane icing
This is a touch clickbaity(/catfishy?), I'm sorry. The icing does not taste like candy canes, rather it is inspired by the aesthetic. Though, actually, now that I think of it, the icing is very sweet, so perhaps it DOES taste like candy canes after all?! If there's one thing I can convince you to add to your pantry, please let it be citric acid. Incredibly brightening in small amounts, just a pinch really lifts the icing. I have used red food colouring here for brightness, along with a spoonful of cranberry sauce (it's post thanksgiving after all), though you could use any red liquid you've got. Food colouring is optional, of course. Mixing icing is not an exact science - I’ll give you a guide, but you should feel free to adjust based on the gloopiness of what you have infront of you!
This recipe is based on Pam aka Lemon Tree Cakes sugar cookies from 'The Joy of Iced Biscuits' newsletter earlier this year. The cookie, which has a great crunch and holds its shape admirably, is enriched with lots of zest and a generous squeeze of lemon juice to help with the depth of flavour. I've also added rosemary for a pine-y kick, which is fun among all the sugar.
The stick shape is purposeful - the slightly taller shape and length actually limits the amount of icing on the cookie in an attempt to limit the over the top sweetness that sometimes occurs in iced biscuits. This dough would also be good for any of your cookie-cutter endeavours.
The Recipe
Citrus Butter Cookie Sticks
Makes about 12-14
Adapted from Pam, aka Lemon Tree Cake's sugar cookie recipe.
Ingredients
100g Butter
100g Caster sugar
20g Lemon Juice
15g Egg Yolk
Zest of 1 x lemon, 1 x orange
1 tsp Finely chopped rosemary
200g Plain flour
½ tsp Flaky salt
White Glaze
Around 15g lemon juice
Around 100g icing sugar (depending on brand you might need more/less)
Optional: Pinch of citric acid
Red Glaze
Around 15g lemon juice / cranberry sauce
Around 100g icing sugar (depending on brand you might need more/less)
Red food colouring
Optional: Pinch of citric acid
Method
Combine softened butter and caster sugar, mixing until creamy. Add the egg yolk, lemon juice, zests and rosemary, blending well, about 30 seconds.
Add the flour and salt, gradually incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, stirring until a soft dough forms.
Pat dough into a rectangle about 1.5cm tall. Wrap well and place into the fridge for at least 30 minutes, but you can make this a few days in advance.
Preheat your oven to 180c fan. Slice the chilled dough into sticks and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown, turning halfway through. Allow the cookies to cool completely.
Mix your glazes - you want it to be thick, but runny - it should run off a spoon smoothly. Aim for a texture similar to runny honey - it will pile up on itself when poured but return to smooth. You want the icings to meld together when you pour them onto the biscuits. If you using cranberry sauce, you might need to smoosh it a lot, then adjust with more lemon juice
For ease, I put the white icing in a piping bag, though it isn’t essential. You can just spoon it on! Place citrus sticks on a rack over a tray lined with paper. Pipe/spoon alternating lines of the icing. Leave to set.
Keep in an airtight container for 5 days.
Date, chocolate & peanut dunkers
I think it's important to have at least one very dunkable biscuit in any selection. This is rich enough to be enjoyed with a hot chocolate but elegant enough to sit next to the other cookies. It's sable adjacent with a touch of raising agents and an egg yolk to bring it all together and add a bit of tenderness among the sandy goodness, blending crunch and crumble. If you're not a peanut fan, you can swap in your favourite nut, or double up on one of the other mix-ins.
The recipe
Ingredients
100g Butter
80g Light brown sugar
40g Caster sugar
25g Egg Yolk
1/3 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
135g Plain flour
50g Dark chocolate, cut into 2cm chunks
40g Dates, cut into 2cm chunks
40g Salted roasted peanuts
Method
The directions here are for using a stand mixer, but you can make these by hand.
Cream together the butter and sugar until lightened but not creamed, about 1 minutes. Add the egg yolk and paddle for 30 seconds until combined. Scrape the edges of the bowl down.
Mix together the flour, raising agent and salt. Add the dries and paddle on a low speed until combined and a dough forms.
Finally, add the dates, chocolate chips and peanuts.
Move dough onto cling film and squash into a rough sausage about 5cm wide. Close the cling film around the dough and roll until smooth ish. Chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours or in the freezer for 1 hour until firm.
To bake, pre-heat oven to 170c. Slice 1-1.5cm rounds, around 30g in weight. Place on a baking sheet. They spread quite a bit, so make sure there is space around them.
Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden around the edges. Leave to cool on the tray.
Store in an airtight container for 5 days
Cacao Nib Ricciolini - A guest recipe by Sarah Lemanski of Nova Bakehouse
Egg whites are, more often than not, an enemy that engulfs the pastry chef and baker who is keen for custard at every turn. Luckily, there are many macaroon-like biscuit iterations to bake your way through, especially during the festive season. If you can, try to source unblanched whole and unblanched ground almonds for this recipe. The almond skin brings a lot of flavour and, alongside the rich cacao nibs, balances the very sweet nature of this crisp and chewy Italian dolce.
Ingredients
Makes Approximately 15
125g whole unblanched almonds
125g ground almonds (plus extra for shaping)
200g caster sugar
1/2tsp sea salt
70g egg white*
35g cacao nibs (Pump Street)* The exact amount may vary based on the moisture content of the ground almonds; some are drier than others.
Method
Grind the whole unblanched almonds in a food processor until fine.
Tip the freshly ground nuts into a large bowl, add the ground almonds, sugar and sea salt and mix well.
Add the egg white and mix to distribute, only adding more egg white if needed to form a dough; the final mixture should be tacky but cohesive, not runny or wet.
Add the cacao nibs and mix to distribute evenly.
Chill the dough for 20 minutes to make it easier to handle.
Divide the dough into portions, approximately 22g each; sprinkling extra ground almonds on the dough can help make it easier to handle and shape. Shape into little lozenges about 4cm x 2cm and around 2cm deep.
Evenly, space the shaped ricciolini onto greaseproof-lined baking sheets.
To bake, preheat the oven to 165c fan. Bake for 6 minutes, rotate and bake for another 6 minutes until lightly golden brown and dry to the touch.
Want more biscuits? Check the rest of this year’s recipes out on KP+!
Sticky toffee cookies, pecan miso sable, chocolate sandwich biscuit and tuiles over on KP+
THIS is Christmas!!!! I cannot wait. The thing I look most forward to every single year now.
Have a wonderful holiday Nicola. Thanks for everything you’ve shared 🥰
I had been wondering about what constitutes a Christmas biscuit while watching the NYT cookie week videos - of the 3 so far, I only think one is season specific.
Those apple rolls! Gorgeous.