Christmas cookies, the Usborne First Cookbook way

For one of my childhood birthdays, perhaps my sixth, I received two books from my UK grandparents.

Newer editions of these books are still being printed, and if you have children - look these books up. I loved my copies, as did my siblings after me (although I reclaimed the books when I moved out of home!).

In my versions, the First Cookbook has sections on 'Hot Things', 'Sweet Things' and 'Party Things' ...

...as well as general tips and advice, some of which I suspect I could benefit from attending to even today.

The Simple Things to Make and Do collection covers Growing Things, Party Fun, and Making Presents.

As with the cooking book, some of the contents remain useful even now;

We haven't made all of the recipes or tried all of the activities, but these books served my family very, very well. Certain recipes and ideas became favourites that we did again and again.

Looking through the books as an adult thus brings back many memories. The worn nature of the cookbook, including the page where my sister's fudge efforts went a little messy (right on top of the safety warning about the hazards of fudge preparation!) also make me smile every time I look at the pages.

This post isn't just about the books, though, despite my extended attention to them. It's really about the Iced Spice Biscuits in the First Cookbook.  My Mum has made these biscuits at Christmas for as long as I can remember, quite possibly since the first year I got the book.

To me, it wouldn't quite be Christmas without these biscuits. I have loved carrying on the tradition since leaving home, and this year I had the privilege of baking a double batch on the weekend and then having my Mum and sister over to decorate them this afternoon.

We made a mess

Although I don't make these cookies at any time other than Christmas, the biscuit base is one of my favourites. This year I ventured to try an egg-free variation (I just subbed in commercial egg replacer), with a certain amount of trepidation lest I ruined the familiar flavour. To my relief, I couldn't detect any differences in the flavour or texture and they were still very, very good.

Although I like these cookies plain, they decorate beautifully. My Mum's icing and decorating efforts have always exceeded mine, but even if you have a shaky hand and clumsy tendencies, you can turn these biscuits into mini Christmas tokens very easily.

They're great for presents, for sharing with family, and for taking in to share at work. And, of course, for eating.

Iced Spice Biscuits, for Christmas

From The Usborne First Cookbook

1 batch (as below) makes about 20 cookies

Print recipe

Ingredients

125g brown sugar

125g dairy-free spread, or butter

250g plain flour

Egg replacer to the equivalent of 1 egg, or 1 egg

Pinch salt

2 tsp mixed spice

Method

Preheat the oven to 190'C and line 2 - 3 baking trays with baking paper

Beat the brown sugar and butter together until fluffy

Gradually beat in the egg or egg replacer

Add the flour, salt and mixed spice and mix well to combine

Knead briefly to form a ball of firm dough

Roll out the dough on a flour-covered surface, to ~1/2 cm thick

Cut out shapes using cookie cutters

Bake on prepared trays for 15 minutes, until light brown (the cookies will continue to firm up after coming out of the oven - they are better coming out a little soft than too hard)

Allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely

To make the icing

Combine 125g icing sugar with 1 - 2 tbsp hot water; mix thoroughly

 Separate the icing into 3 small bowls

Colour icing with food colouring as desired

Decorate and top with cachous, mini M&Ms or other decorations to taste

No matter how hard we try, there are always some demented biscuits left over from the decorating efforts. The above pictures show the 'acceptable' ones - those that may be presented to others or put out when non-family people are around.

Here are some of the ones that will be kept just for home;

A hippy reindeer with a broken leg (among other things)...

...including what is almost my favourite creation, because it is just so odd! I don't know what I was thinking when I decorated this...at least the M&M surplus should make it appealing for eating.

Quality of the cookie decorating aside, I love having this tradition and being able to sit down with my Mum and sister to fulfill it. It's certainly one I will miss if I ever move away (or one of them does).

Do you have any childhood recipes that you still enjoy today?

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Vegan Chocolate Mint Tim Tams, version 1

When I was pondering what to make over the 3-day long weekend (because, as I'm sure you all know, something will be made over a 3-day long weekend - and very likely multiple somethings), the idea for vegan chocolate mint Tim Tams came to me in a flash.

Although several commercial vegan Tim Tam-like biscuits are available, they are generally expensive, don't taste quite right (to me), and have a long and artificial-y ingredient list. They might be vegan, but with a few notable exceptions, they don't generally appeal to me.

Although I rarely had Tim Tams before veganising aspects of my diet, I thought it would be fun to try and create a mint version at home. Mint and chocolate combinations are a firm favourite of mine and Mr Bite's, so it's a flavour that is usually safe when trying out new recipes.

I am calling these Version 1 because my original plan was to create a mint filling from soy condensed milk, with cornflour to thicken it, and peppermint essence. I still can't find soy condensed milk (I am sure it is somewhere in Western Australia, but I'm yet to discover precisely where) so I used soy evaporated milk instead.

If I ever locate condensed milk, I will try that for Version 2.

In the meantime, I'm quite happy to present Version 1.

Vegan Chocolate Mint Tim Tams

Makes 16 biscuits

Drawing inspiration from...

Arnott's

Lisa @ Bake Bike Blog - gluten-free tim tams 

Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe - an adaptation of Lisa's original

Mel @ Veganise This - vegan choc mint balls

Ingredients:

• 1 250g packet Arnott's Nice biscuits (or any other plain vegan biscuits, or biscuit of your choice)
• 200g dairy-free chocolate (I used 100g Sweet William's dairy-free milk chocolate and 100g Lindt 70% cocoa dark chocolate and found this to work very well)
• 1/4 cup soy evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Instructions:

1. Take 16 Nice biscuits and break them in half. You will use 2 biscuit halves for each final chocolate biscuit.

2. Combine the soy evaporated milk, icing sugar and peppermint extract in a microwave proof bowl. Heat on medium power for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, until the ingredients are well combined and the mixture has thickened slightly (you could, of course, also do this over the stove top). 

3. Place the peppermint mixture in the freezer for ~5 minutes, to cool.

4. Crumble 3 - 4 Nice biscuits into small, crumb-size pieces. Add these to the peppermint mixture when it has cooled. This won't look particularly attractive - don't worry!

4. Spread a few tsp of the peppermint mixture onto one of the half biscuit pieces. You want enough mixture to cover the whole of the biscuit base. Top with another half biscuit piece, to sandwich the peppermint filling. Repeat for the remaining biscuits.

Again, this won't look particularly attractive - don't worry!

5. Place the peppermint-filled biscuits in the freezer to set, about 20 minutes.

6. Melt your chocolate in a heat proof bowl, in the microwave or over a double boiler system on the stove top. (I actually melted my chocolate in two lots; if you do it all at once, you may need to return the mixture to the heat halfway through the biscuit construction.)

7. Dip each biscuit into the chocolate mixture, to coat. Alternatively, use a spoon to cover each biscuit with chocolate. I alternated between these two approaches.

8. Place each chocolate coated biscuit on a baking tray lined with baking paper. When all biscuits are coated, place them in the freezer to set, about 15 - 20 minutes. Then transfer to the fridge for storage.

The verdict?

Delicious.

Mr Bite and I both really liked the chocolate coating (Lindt + Sweet William's = a good outcome) and the biscuit filling. He would have liked more peppermint flavour, but I found it to be enough. Depending on your tastes, you may want to play around with the quantity of peppermint essence.

The filling wasn't quite what I had envisioned (that's where Version 2 will come in, if I can track down that soy condensed milk) but overall, I was very happy with these.

They're definitely a decadent product (and I think best kept for occasional consumption!) but the making and eating were certainly enjoyable. What's more, there are no unpronounceable ingredients in sight.

Are you a chocolate biscuit fan? Do you have a favourite variety?

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