Biscuits Galore in a Box

For the 2nd week of the Great Bloggers Bake Off it is biscuit week, kindly being hosted by Andrea. I had so many ideas in my head but my plans were dashed as Grotbags insisted on helping out.  We decided to have a go at baking a biscuit box with a variety of biscuits to go inside.

Gingerbread Box

8oz butter

3 1/2oz brown sugar

3 1/2oz caster sugar

60ml golden syrup

1 egg

1lb 2oz plain flour

1tbsp ground ginger

2 tsps cinnamon

1 1/2 tsps bicarbonate of soda

To Decorate

1 egg white

10 1/2 oz icing sugar

5 drops of lemon juice

12 oz of dark chocolate

1. Whisk the butter, sugars and treacle in a bowl.
2. Add the beaten egg.
3. Stir in the flour, cinnamon, ginger and bicarbonate of soda until you have a soft dough.
4. You can add more flour if the dough is sticky.
5. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave in the fridge to cool.
6. Once the dough is cool I rolled out between two sheets of baking paper and cut out 6 x 7cm squares.
7. Bake at 180 degrees for 10-15 mins.
8. Transfer to wire tray to cool.
9. Whisk the egg white and add the icing sugar and lemon juice until you have a pipeable icing and decorate 5 of the 6 squares and leave for 2 hours to dry.
10. To stick my sides together I placed the base in a square cake tin,  melted some chocolate and piped it along the edges, resting two sides at a time on the corner of the tin, repeating this when the first sides had dried.

Biscuit Dough

1lb 2oz butter

9oz sugar

1lb 6oz plain flour

1 1/2 tsps salt

2 1/2 tsps vanilla essence

Flavour variations I used

Grated orange and chocolate chip

Grated lemon and poppy seed

Peanut butter and cranberries

M & Ms

Marshmallow and popping candy

As you can see from the list of flavours we added, my daughter was very much involved in the baking of these biscuits.

1. Mix all the ingredients for the biscuit dough together and then divide the mixture in to 5 portions.
2. Into each portion add a variety of ingredients of your choice.
3. Roll each portion in clingfilm into a log shape and freeze.
4. Once frozen or cold enough to slice, cut as many biscuits as you want to bake and freeze the rest of the dough.
5. Place on baking paper and cook on 160 degrees for about 15 minutes.

This biscuit dough is ideal to prepare and have ready in the freezer for unexpected guests and children love them.

They may not be a work of art but they taste fantastic and we had such fun making them and that is what baking is all about to us.  I can't wait to see some of the fabulous creations everybody else has made.