Contributed by Librarian Adrienne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

125g butter or salt reduced margarine
¾ cup caster sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
½ teaspoons baking powder

For decoration

90 gm white melts or royal icing to represent tinsel
Silver or coloured caches
Mini chocolate Smarties
Mini m&ms
Decorations of your choice to represent baubles

Method

Place butter and caster sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy.

Add egg and vanilla essence and beat well.

Stir in sifted flour, cocoa and baking powder and knead to form a firm dough.

Roll dough out to a thickness of 0.5cm between two sheets of baking paper and cut with a 9 x 12cm Christmas tree cutter (you can use other size cutters but you will get more or less biscuits depending on the size of the cutter).

Place trees on oven trays lined with baking paper. Bake at 190°C  for 15 minutes. Allow to stand on trays for three minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool.

Place white melts in the top section of a double saucepan and stir over simmering water until melted. Pour into a piping bag and drizzle over cool shortbreads. Decorate the biscuits using icing, chocolates etc.

Makes 14 biscuits.