Christmas stretches a budget more than any other time of the year. In addition to presents for family and friends, there are often acquaintances that require a small gift. Unfortunately, these small gifts can have a big impact on the family budget.
Homemade Christmas gifts are one budget-friendly gift alternative. This isn’t always possible or practical for more significant gifts, but for acquaintances such as co-workers or staff at children’s schools, it can be a cost effective way of showing appreciation.
Homemade shortbread biscuits are easy to bake, decorate and wrap. They are inexpensive but can look quite festive when presented in a decorated gift box. Themed biscuit cutters can make the biscuits more personal.
Iced Shortbread Recipe
- 2 cups plain flour
- ½ cup icing sugar mixture, sifted
- 200g butter, chopped
- 2 cups pure icing sugar
- food colouring
- water
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)
- Place flour, icing sugar mixture and butter in food processor. Process using the pulse button until fine crumbs form. Add 2 tablespoons water. Process in short bursts until dough is moist. Tip dough onto baking paper-lined bench and press together.
- Roll or pat dough out to approximately 7mm thickness. Cut out desired shapes using biscuit cutter. Transfer to baking paper-lined baking trays.
- Bake for 12 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and place on racks to cool.
- Sift pure icing sugar into bowl. Add 2½ tablespoons hot water and food colouring and stir until mixture is smooth.
- Place biscuits face down in the icing, letting the excess drain back into the bowl. Place icing side up on wire rack. Ice 6-8 biscuits then decorate with 100s & 1000s or other sprinkles if desired while icing is still soft. Repeat until all biscuits are iced. If icing starts to thicken, add a few drops of hot water until it is the right consistency.
Note: Use green icing for Christmas tree shaped biscuits, yellow for stars, pink for hearts etc.
If using small biscuit cutters (2-3 cm), this recipe will produce approx 100 biscuits. Medium sized cutters (5-6 cm) will produce approx 40 - 50 biscuits.
To ‘wrap’ biscuits, buy small gift boxes or plastic noodle containers. Line with tissue paper and cellophane in matching colours. If the gift is for a child’s teacher, let them decorate the gift box with their own artwork. Place biscuits into the box/container on the day the gift is to be given.
These shortbread aren’t just for Christmas and make a great ‘thank you’ gift any time of the year. Biscuit cutters come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, so it is possible to personalise the cookies to make them extra special – hearts for Valentine’s Day, music note shapes for piano or singing teachers, numbers for a specific age or letters to spell out someone’s name.
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