Sweet Biscuit Wreath Food

SWEET BISCUITS FOR BREAKFAST OR SHORTCAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400, I place a rack in lowest position in the oven.
• Combine dry ingredients.
• Cut in butter.
• Stir in liquid until it just begins to pull from the sides- it will be pretty moist.
• Spread 1/4 C flour on a pastry board and dump the dough onto the flour.
• Gently turn the dough until all sides are covered with flour.
• Knead by gently rubbing the dough into the flour, a scant 8 to 10 turns.
• Pat the dough into a 1 inch thich slab.
• Cut into rounds with a sharp round biscuit cutter- I use a 2 1/2 inch cutter-- you can push the scraps together to make room to cut a few more, try not to knead it too much.
• Place on insulated cookie sheet about 1/2 inch apart.
• Put in HOT oven and bake for 12- 15 minutes.
• You can test by lifting the top layer of the center biscuit; if it's done it will look dry inside and the edges will be golden.
• (I get 9 biscuits when I use a 2 1/2" cutter).

HOLIDAY BISCUIT WREATH

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 10-inch tube pan with cooking spray.
• Cut each biscuit into 2 half moons to make 48 biscuit pieces. Separate the pieces into 2 piles.
• Working with half of the dough, flatten a piece of biscuit in your hand and stuff it with a cheese cube and about 1/4 teaspoon fig preserves (it is easier to roll if you use the little pieces of fig from the preserves). Gather the dough around it and roll into a ball. Repeat with the remaining dough, cheese and jam to make 24 balls; set aside.
• With the remaining dough, stuff and roll each piece of biscuit with an olive.
• Toss the almonds and parsley together in a medium bowl. Toss the Cheddar, paprika and cayenne together in another medium bowl. Put the melted butter in a small bowl.
• Alternating every so often between the two flavors, dip the cheese and jam balls in butter, then roll them to coat in the almond topping; and dip the olive balls in butter and roll them to coat in the Cheddar topping. Arrange the balls in the tube pan so that the flavors are interspersed.
• Bake the bread until golden brown all over and the dough is baked through, about 35 minutes. Cool in the pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a plate and serve warm.

CHOCOLATE BISCUIT WREATH CAKE

Steps:

• Oil a 25cm bundt tin and line with cling film, ensuring there are no gaps and the cling film comes up and over the sides of the tin. Lightly brush with more oil.
• Spoon the biscuit cake mix into the prepared tin, pressing down firmly with the back of a spoon. Bring the cling film over the top of the cake, seal and press down firmly. Transfer to the fridge and chill until the cake is completely firm, about 4 hrs. Can be prepared up to one week in advance. When the cake is set, it will easily drop out of the tin with a sharp tap.
• Next, make the holly biscuits. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Lightly knead the gingerbread dough and roll out onto a lightly dusted work surface. Stamp out 16-18 holly leaves using a holly-leaf-shaped biscuit cutter, re-rolling the dough as needed (you can use different sizes of biscuit cutters, if you like). Transfer the biscuits to a lined baking sheet, spacing them apart. Bake for 8 mins until golden, then transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
• Divide the royal icing between two bowls and colour with the food colouring - one should be dark green, the other light. Fit a piping bag with a small round nozzle and fill with 2 tbsp of the light green icing. Repeat with a second piping bag and the darker icing. Thin the remaining icings in the bowls with just enough water to achieve a runny consistency - when you run a spoon through the bowls, the trail should settle on its own by the count of 10.
• Using the icing in the piping bags, pipe the outlines of the holly leaves on the cooled biscuits. Use each colour for half the biscuits (you don't need to use all of the icing). Fill a piping bag with one of the thinned icings, snip off the end, and use this to flood the gaps of half the biscuits (they should have a contrasting outline). If you like, smooth the icing into the gaps using a clean, fine, damp paintbrush. Repeat with the other thinned icing and remaining biscuits.
• Use the remaining icing in the piping bags to pipe over the outlines and central vein so they stand out. Leave to set overnight. The biscuits can be made up to one month in advance and stored in a cake box or sealed plastic container lined with baking parchment.
• Next, make the poinsettia flowers. Colour the 3 tbsp royal icing with the yellow food colouring gel, and the remainder with the red food colouring gel. Fit a piping bag with a leaf nozzle and fill with the red icing (the icing should be slightly stiff ). Line a chopping board with baking parchment and draw three 6cm circles on the parchment (you can use the bottom of a glass or a biscuit cutter as a guide). Flip the parchment over, then pipe three poinsettia petals as a triangle to fit within one of the circles. Pipe the next three petals between the first to create a six- petalled base flower. Repeat in the other circles so you have three separate flowers. Leave to set for 30 mins, then pipe a smaller set of six petals on top of the base flowers. Leave to set for another 30 mins.
• Fit a piping bag with a small round nozzle and fill with the yellow icing. Pipe a series of dots into the centres of the poinsettias. Leave to dry completely - this may take up to two days, as the flowers are quite thick.
• To assemble the wreath, knead and roll out the chocolate fondant icing onto a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar until it's large enough to cover the wreath. Use this to cover the wreath, then press into position and use a 5cm round cutter to remove the fondant from the middle of the wreath. Neaten and trim the edges.
• Carefully transfer the wreath to a cake stand or board. Place the holly biscuits on top of the wreath to create a flat surface, using a little royal icing to fix them in place. Add more biscuits on top. Carefully remove the poinsettias from the baking parchment using a palette knife, then fix to the leaves using more royal icing. Finish by fixing the red sugar pearls to the wreath with royal icing. Will keep for up to two weeks in a cool place. Take the biscuits off and enjoy separately, then cut the cake into wedges.

SWEET GRAZING WREATH

Steps:

• For the chocolate salami, put the biscuits and pretzels in a food processor and blitz to coarse crumbs or put in a bag, seal, then crush using a rolling pin.
• Put the chocolate, butter, syrup and a small pinch of salt in a heatproof bowl, and melt in the microwave in 20-second bursts until smooth, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, ensuring the bowl doesn't touch the water. Stir in the biscuit and pretzel crumbs.
• Spread the mixture onto a sheet of baking parchment, then roll into a log around 6cm in diameter, using the parchment to help, then twist the ends of the parchment around the log to hold the shape. Tuck the ends underneath. Chill for at least 3 hrs or overnight until set.
• Remove the log from the parchment and dust with icing sugar, removing any excess with a pastry brush. Dip a sharp knife into a mug of boiling water and wipe dry. Slice the salami into 2cm-thick pieces.
• For the jazzies, melt the white chocolate as described in step 2, then line a large baking sheet with baking parchment and spoon on small, round blobs of it - around 40. Sprinkle with the hundreds and thousands and chill for at least 30 mins.
• Unwrap the chocolate coins. Use a small paint brush to coat them with lustre, if you like, or leave them as they are.
• To assemble, arrange the chocolate salami, jazzies, coins and the rest of the ingredients into a circular wreath shape on a round serving platter.