Kitchen Project #192: Christmas Biscuit Bonanza

WE ARE BACK FOR 2025!!!

Hello,

Welcome to today’s edition of Kitchen Projects. Thank you so much for being here.

We are well on our way to Christmas, and even though it’s been a busy start to the month (The 12 days of Christmas recipe advent wrapped up on Friday - click here for the round-up!) we’ve made it to my favourite edition of the year: It’s the annual Christmas Biscuit Bonanza!!! You’ll find half of the recipes below, while the other half is available on KP+ now.

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 £6 per month or £50 per year (£3.80/month). Why not give it a go? Come and join the gang!

Love,
Nicola

P.S. Did you know you can gift a Substack subscription? If you’ve wanted to join KP+, or you have a baker in your life who you think would enjoy the extra detail and access to all the goodies here on Kitchen Projects, click here!

We Wish You a Merry Biscuit

TEAM!!!

Each year, this newsletter starts as a fresh page. But no matter what is written before it, which bakes emerge, there is always a guarantee that the last few lines will be all about biscuits. Readers, it is time… for the 5TH ANNUAL BISCUIT BONANZA 2025! And would you look at this team?!

It wouldn’t be out of line for me to say that I spend each year building toward this edition! I’ve come to both love and fear it. The former because…. how can you not love a week dedicated to biscuits? The latter because… well, it is complicated – I have my own concerns about creativity (will I one day cast down a biscuit-shaped bucket and find the well is dry?!) but it is mainly because I never want to force a recipe into existence that isn’t ready or, to be honest, worthwhile.

Fortunately, I have a trusty ongoing iPhone note that becomes a bulging holding pen for any-and-all Christmas biscuit ideas that happen to float past throughout the year. Of course, this confusing and sometimes overengineered list of ideas needs a brutal edit (wtf are ‘Christmas clusters’!? Check back in 2026 to see if I’ve figured it out). Of course, this means passing it through the rubric of Tim Mazurek’s Cookie Commandments and THEN, and only then, is the KitchenAid plugged in, the sheet trays cleared, and the oven switched on.

As I develop the list of recipes, I always check to see if I’ve met the criteria of a good, balanced selection. Year on year, I refer to this list of rules (and some cookies tick more than one box): One with icing (and) sprinkles, something jammy or fruity, an ultra chocolatey one, a firm shortbread based, something chewy and soft, an outrageously Christmassy flavour and, of course, one fun shape!

This year’s selection!

Despite the fears, I’m thrilled to say that this year’s biscuit bonanza is FULL of gorgeous delights, and even better - because teamwork makes the dream work, don’t they say? - I have two extremely brilliant guest recipes to make this one of my favourite ever selections:

• Fancy Iced Gems - buttery shortbread topped with a brightly coloured meringue hat

• Chocolate Cream Domes (KP+) - buckwheat chocolate cookie with a mound of fudgy cream, covered with chocolate and fancy sprinkles (salt & cacao nibs)

• Black Olive Shortbread by Brian Levy - orange zest spiked shortbread with flecks of dried black olive - so moreish, utter brilliance. heaven!

• Sour cherry Riccarelli by Cissy Difford - soft, chewy almond-crusted cookies filled with rubies of dried cherries

• Egg Nog Custard Creams aka Clam Cookies! (KP+) - rich, tender biscuit with the perfect amount of crumble filled with a rum and nutmeg-spiked buttercream

• Citrus & Almond Olive Oil Shortbread (KP+) - the fudgiest, stickiest and richest shortbread cut into little bricks. These might be my favourite!?!?v

• Fiery Ginger Matchsticks - Crisp, ginger cookie sticks, properly spiced, dipped to festive perfection.

from L-R: Egg nog custard creams, chocolate cream domes & olive oil shortbread. On KP+ today!

So, shall we get into it?

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Fiery Ginger Matchsticks

I promise to never give you a novelty biscuit that doesn’t also pack a huge flavour punch. This recipe started off simply as ‘ginger sticks’ – I conceived making a barely sweet dough that you’d roll, similar to pocky sticks, to long, irregular and spindly lengths, then dip in crystallised ginger-spiked chocolate. BUT, the more time I spent with this dough (and the more I realised that hand rolling sticks of cookie dough is incredibly tiresome), a new idea emerged: What if I cut the dough into neat sticks, and what if those neat sticks became matchsticks?

Ahaaaaa - it just made so much sense - spice the dough ‘til fiery then dip in a candy-red chocolate. You could use icing, too, if that is easier or more appealing.

Now, the size is where things get interesting. I tried quite a few different sizes. I LOVE the tiny ones, but they are a little boring to cut, but great fun to eat. Much like the Cypriot olive oil crisp sticks, you can enjoy them by the handful. Again, it gets a little repetitive when it comes to dipping them. Also, because each matchstick weighs about 0.3g, you get a yield of hundreds from a relatively small block of dough.

Ultimately, you should cut these to the length, width and size that most inspires you - I’ve shared what works for me, as well as baking times, but this is an unfussy dough that behaves beautifully in the oven. It would also work well as a roll & cut-out dough if that’s what you’d prefer.

RECIPE: Fiery Ginger Matchsticks

Ignore the bit where it says Chocolate orangettes. Thank you, Milli, for finding this box for me!

Yield: about 40-50 medium-sized matchsticks, depending on how you cut them, or hundreds of mini matchsticks.

The dough

• 50g Butter, soft

• 40g Dark brown sugar

• 20g Molasses syrup

• 150g Plain Flour

• 2 tsp Ground Ginger (or more, if you want fiery-er!)

• 1 tsp Cinnamon

• ¼ tsp White Pepper

• ⅛ tsp Baking powder

• ¼ tsp Fine salt

• 30g Whole Milk

The dip (makes more than you need, but helpful for having a bit of depth to dip into!)

• 60g White chocolate

• 1 tsp Vegetable or neutral oil

• Red food colouring gel. I have the Wiltons one.

Method

• Mix the butter, sugar and molasses until creamy and a little aerated - 1 minute or so in a stand mixer or by hand for 2 minutes.

• Next, add in the dry ingredients - flour, spices, etc. and stir until about 50% incorporated, then add the milk and continue mixing to a soft dough.

• Form the dough into a square - 13x13cm and about 1.5cm thick - then wrap well and chill til firm.

• For the final shaping, it is really up to you. You can slice into 0.5cm strips, then into ‘3’ - this gives you elegant matchsticks that are about 5g each. You can also cut into 1cm strips and then into 3 - these are chunkier. You can also cut the dough into 2mm strips, then in half, then into small, mini matchsticks. Essentially, this dough can be whatever size matchsticks you like!

  

• Transfer your sticks to a tray and chill whilst you pre-heat the oven to 160c fan. For larger sticks, bake for 13-14 minutes (mainly go by colour - I like these darker and crisp), or for mini sticks, about 6 minutes.

• Leave to cool on the tray.

• To prepare the dip, melt the chocolate either in bursts in the microwave or over a bain-marie. Stir in the oil, followed by the food colouring. It takes rather a lot of food colouring for it to go red at all, so persevere. If it stiffens, add a little more oil.

• Dip the tip of each cookie into the chocolate, then lay it back on the tray to dry completely. Store in an airtight container, will stay good for several weeks.

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Fancy Iced Gems

Last year, I was inspired by iced gems for a variation on the theme - Mont Blanc iced gem with a chestnut shortbread. This year, missing a bit of colour in my selection, I decided to revisit the concept and recreate them a bit more faithfully. For the uninitiated or unfamiliar, iced gems are a staple of British packed lunches – they combine a simple sugar cookie base with a swirl of royal icing in a few different flavours (though you’d never know they had a flavour other than sugar. Pls note there is no shade, only love.)

Here, a simple roll, cut and bake shortbread - much more buttery than the original, meets a stiff meringue that is baked til crisp. Meringue has less sugar than royal icing, which helps bring balance to this little cookie. I’ve also hidden a little preserved cherry underneath each star of meringue – this is entirely optional, and is - admittedly - faffy. But it does make these very fun to eat. A little splodge of tart jam (dare I say…. Cranberry sauce?!?! Could be great here, too)

RECIPE: Fancy Iced Gems

Yield: About 80

Ingredients

Base

• 25g Caster sugar

• 50g Butter

• 100g Plain Flour

• Pinch of fine sea salt

Topping

• 90g Egg whites, about 3

• 160g Caster sugar

To Finish (all optional!)

• Food colouring, I like gel-based and use Wilton and sugarflair

• Preserved cherries, about ten

• A few tsp of tart jam

Method

• For the shortbread, cream together the butter and sugar for about 1 minute or until light and creamy. Stir through the flour and salt until a dough forms. Split the dough in half, then using floured hands, roll the dough into 2 x 2cm logs, then wrap well and chill til firm.

• Pre-heat oven to 150c fan. Slice shortbread into 0.5cm rounds and space evenly on a tray lined with paper - they won’t spread much.

• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool on the tray.

• For the meringue, preheat the oven to 180c fan. Weigh the sugar onto a tray and bake for about 8 minutes - it’ll be slightly bubbling at the edges and may break in uneven, clumps when you shift the tray. Take it out the oven, then whisk your egg whites until frothy, about 40 seconds. Add all of the hot sugar, taking care not to burn yourself, into the egg whites, then whisk until you get a really stiff meringue, about 10 minutes.

• Reduce the oven to 100c fan.

• If desired, split the meringue into smaller portions and colour with food colouring. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star tip – if you are using multiple colours with the same tip, put the tip into an empty bag, then the colours into individual bags. This way, you can just slip the meringue-filled bag into the one with the tip, and swap out between colours. You can also use a piping bag and simply snip the top for more of an smooth dome with a little peak.

• Dab a little jam, or cut preserved cherries into eight (!! I know!) and place a little bit on each biscuit. Pipe a little star of meringue on top. Once all the stars are on, return to the oven for 45 minutes to dry out the meringue until crisp. Leave to cool before storing in an airtight container for several weeks.

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Black Olive Shortbread

by Brian Levy

We often think of butter and olives—at least olive oil—as the A and B of a binary. Right? But they can flourish in a union, as these kalamata olive shortbread biscuits demonstrate. They’re ultra-buttery, crumbly but not dry, and they have a touch of fruity-winy flavour and dried-fruit texture from olives that undergo a special preparatory step: oven-drying.

I fell in love with oven-dried black olives when I was driven to make them in order for my Olive & Pine Nut Brittle to succeed. (If the olives weren’t thoroughly dried first, their moisture eventually transferred to the caramelised sugar, making it soggy.) A bit of luck: for these biscuits, the olives need not be quite as dry as for the brittle, so they require only three hours in the oven rather than four. (I suggest you make extra in addition to the small quantity required for this recipe. With their intensely concentrated flavour and meaty texture, they make a tempting snack or garnish.)

Make sure to find olives without pits, and check that the ingredients include no herbs or spices; just water, vinegar, and salt.

This shortbread is easy to make, and it lasts quite a while (no wonder, with all that butter!), making it perfect for holiday gifting. My initial inspiration for the biscuits were Spanish polvorones, themselves a traditional crumbly Christmastime cookie made with lard. Using butter instead of lard—and not toasting the almond flour—makes my shortbreads less crumbly and more tender than polvorones (polvo means “dust” in Spanish). The bright hint of sweet citrus from the orange zest and juice complements the olives and butter perfectly. (Ever had a bowl of olives with orange zest mixed in? Delicious!)

RECIPE: Kalamata Olive Shortbread

Makes about 40 biscuits (cookies)

STORAGE AND SHELF LIFE:

• Dough: keep frozen, sealed in airtight wrapping or container, for up to a month or more.

• Baked shortbread: Store in an airtight container—in a cool, dark place--for up to two weeks (or in the freezer for up to a month).

Ingredients:

• 50 g pitted kalamata olives (liquid-brined, without herbs or spices), excess liquid lightly squeezed out

• 160 g plain (all-purpose) flour

• 65 g cornstarch (UK: “cornflour”)

• 140 g unsalted butter, room temperature

• 85 g almond flour

• 72 g sugar, plus more for dipping

• 1/2 tsp (packed) orange zest

• 10 g orange juice

Method

• Dry the olives: Line a baking sheet with parchment and heat the oven to 95°C/200°F without fan/convection (or 80°C/175°F with fan/convection). Scatter the olives across the sheet and bake until dry and wrinkled, like plump raisins, about 3 hours. They should have shriveled to about 22 grams.

• Once cooled, finely chop the dried olives. Combine the flour and cornstarch (“cornflour”) in a medium bowl and toss the chopped olives in the mixture until they’re evenly distributed. Set aside.

• Make and chill the dough: Beat the butter, almond flour, sugar, orange zest, and orange juice on medium speed for a few minutes, until light and somewhat fluffy. Add the flour-olive mixture and beat on low speed just until no dry flour remains; do not overbeat. Gather and compress the dough into a mass, roughly shape it into a fat log, and wrap or seal it tightly. Refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes.

• Slice, sugar, and bake: Line two half-sheet pans with parchment and heat the oven to 165C/325F fan/convection (or 175C/350F without fan/convection. Once chilled, roll the dough out to an even log, 28-mm (1 1/8-in.) diameter. (If you find it easier to handle shorter logs, divide the dough into two halves.) Put some sugar in a small bowl. Slice the logs into 19-mm (3/4-in.) cylinders. Dip the top of each cylinder into the sugar, pressing lightly so that it sticks, and arrange them on the lined pans, sugared side up.

  

• Leave about an inch between them, but don’t worry; the cookies won’t spread much. Bake 14-15 minutes, until puffed, lightly cracked, and just golden at the edges. Let cool to room temperature. Store in an airtight container—in a cool, dark place--for up to two weeks (or in the freezer for up to a month).

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Sour Cherry and Marzipan Ricciarelli (GF)

by Cissy Difford

These Sour Cherry and Marzipan Ricciarelli are my Christmas twist on the classic Italian almond treat. Made with ground almonds, sugar, and egg whites, Ricciarelli are treasured for their chewy texture and delicate, crackled finish. In this version, tart dried sour cherries are folded into the dough, adding a pop of acidity that balances the sweet richness of the marzipan.

Rolled in flaked almonds, lightly dusted with powdered sugar, and baked until golden at the edges, these cookies have a soft interior and a deeply satisfying, crunchy exterior, ideal for pairing with an espresso or a glass of dessert wine. Whether you’re baking gifts for Christmas or simply craving something sweet, these cookies are a perfect option.

Recipe: Sour cherry Riccarelli

Makes 15-20 biscuits

Involves overnight chilling

Ingredients

• 50g egg whites (2 medium eggs)

• 110g icing sugar, sifted (plus extra for dusting)

• 200g ground almonds (for best results use skin-on almonds freshly ground until fine in a food processor)

• a pinch of flaky sea salt

• 50g diced marzipan

• 50g coarsely grated marzipan

• 50g dried sour cherries

• ¼ tsp mahleb powder (optional)

• 2 tsp noyaux (optional)

• Plus 100g flaked almonds for rolling

Method

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.

• Gradually add in the sifted icing sugar, whisking until the meringue is stiff and shiny (5-10 minutes).

• Remove the bowl from the machine, and using a large metal spoon, gently fold in the ground almonds, salt, diced and grated marzipan, sour cherries, mahleb powder and noyaux until a dough forms.

• Transfer the dough to a container fitted with a lid and place in the fridge. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour, but preferably overnight. Resting the dough will give the ingredients time to fully hydrate, making it firmer and less sticky to work with, it will also help prevent the dough from flattening during baking.

• When the dough is chilled and firm, remove it from the fridge.

• Preheat the oven to 160c fan.

• Lightly dust your work surface with icing sugar. Using your hands, portion the dough into 25-30g balls, then shape each ball into an oval about 1-1.5” long, like a small sausage. If the dough feels sticky and hard to work with, lightly dust your hands with icing sugar to prevent sticking.

  

• Place the flaked almonds in a large bowl or a lipped tray. Dunk each biscuit into the flaked almonds until each side is covered, securing any excess flakes by gently pressing them into the dough with your fingers.

• Space the coated biscuits onto 2 baking trays lined with paper, leaving a small gap between each as they will spread slightly as they bake.

• Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until golden.

• When you remove the biscuits from the oven ,they will seem soft, but as they cool they will firm up.

• Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Notes on storage

• The raw shaped, and coated biscuits can be stored in an airtight container and frozen for up to 2-3 months. These can then be baked from frozen.

• Store baked ricciarelli in an air tight container at room temp for up to 7 days.

Additional Notes

• If the flaked almonds aren’t sticking to the dough, you can lightly brush the dough with a little egg white, which will help the flaked almonds cling to the dough.

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For the rest of the biscuit recipes - chocolate cream domes, custard cream egg nog cookies aka clam cookies and the olive oil shortbread, click here!