Hacked Biscuits Quick Easy Food

EASIEST EVER BISCUITS

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Put the butter in a bowl and beat it with electric beaters until soft and creamy. Beat in the sugar, then the egg and vanilla, and finally the flour to make a dough. If the dough feels a bit sticky, add a little bit more flour and knead it in.
• Pull pieces off the dough and roll them out to about the thickness of two £1 coins on a floured surface. The easiest way to do this with small children is to roll the mixture out on a baking mat. Cut out shapes using a 9cm biscuit cutter, or a use the rim of a small glass and peel away the leftover dough around the edges. Press some clean toys gently into the biscuits, making sure you make enough of a mark without going all the way through. Re-roll off-cuts and repeat.
• Transfer the whole mat or the individual biscuits to the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 mins or until the edges are just brown. Leave to cool for 5 mins, then serve. Will keep for three days in a biscuit tin.

HACKED BISCUITS, QUICK & EASY!

Steps:

• The magic to these biscuits is using VERY light pressure when handling the dough, and kneading/folding no more than 7 times! It will BARELY look like biscuits but this is fine trust me!
• Combine 3 cups flour, 1 heaping handful of baking powder, 1 small handful powdered sugar, and 3 pinches of salt in a large bowl. Mix well to distribute.
• Add one stick softened butter/margarine. "Cut" into dry ingredients with a fork, flicking your wrist much like beating eggs. Continue breaking butter into flour until you have pea-sized particles.
• Whisk one egg with one cup milk. Make a fist and punch a valley into the dry mixture. Add about 2/3 of the egg/milk mixture. Take a spatula and pull flour from the edges of the bowl inward to the milk. Remember to be GENTLE! You are now trying to build air for fluffy biscuits!
• Add the rest of the egg/milk mixture and ensure an even distribution of dry to wet. A good consistency is not-sticky, but almost. You can add pinches of flour if you need to!
• Grab a handful of flour and fling it on the counter. Drop the dough onto the surface, and begin kneading it easily about 7 times. You can do this by taking the rear portion of the dough, pulling it towards you, and "folding" or pushing it down towards the counter. Repeat this 7 times!
• Once you have barely formed some dough, pat it out very gently into a rectangle. Dust it lightly with flour, and cut it into 8 squares with a VERY sharp knife.
• Dust, butter, or spray a cooking sheet and preheat oven to 400°F.
• Place the biscuits very close to each other, maybe 1/4" gap. Cook until tops are golden brown and the center is no longer doughy. You may have to separate mid-way through baking due to the very surprising amount of leavening action these biscuits have.
• Enjoy and make many more.

HALLOWEEN BISCUITS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
• Put the butter in a bowl and beat with electric beaters until soft and creamy. Beat in the sugar, then the egg and vanilla, and finally the flour to make a dough. If the dough feels a bit sticky add a little more flour and knead it in. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for half an hour.
• Heavily flour a surface and cut the pastry in half. Roll out one half to 5mm thickness. Using a cookie cutter in the shape of a ghost (or any spooky shaped cutter you like), cut out 12 ghost shapes, which will make 4 cookies. Put the cut shapes on a baking tray lined with baking paper and put back in the fridge. Repeat with the second half of the pastry. Swap into the fridge, taking the chilled ghost biscuits out.
• Using a smaller cutter or a knife, cut a ghost-shaped hole in the middle of 4 of the biscuits on the tray, this is the space to store the surprise centre! Put these biscuits into the oven to bake for 10-12 mins, until pale but cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the other tray.
• Once all the biscuits have cooled completely, they are ready to be assembled. Mix the icing sugar with 3 tbsp of water and mix well. It should be quite thick so add a little more icing sugar if the mixture is too runny. Take a biscuit without the centre missing, and spread or pipe a little icing around the edge. Press a biscuit with a centre missing on top, then sprinkle popping candy into the pocket that you have created ( or rainbow sprinkles as an alternative, if you're serving to very young children). Spread icing on the edge of the second biscuit and press another whole biscuit on top. Set aside to firm up. Make sure you leave them for a while so they don't slide when you are finishing the decoration.
• Once the biscuits feel firm and the icing has set, use the sugar paste to decorate them as you please, rolling it out, cutting it to shape and topping the biscuits. You may have to use a little of the icing to glue it down. Decorate with icing pens if you like.