Go Back
Top down shot of orange cinnamon butter biscuits in reindeer, Christmas tree, star and snowflake shapes
Print

Orange Cinnamon Butter Biscuits

Course Dessert
Cuisine British
Keyword biscuits
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Chilling Time 45 minutes
Author Domestic Gothess

Ingredients

Orange Cinnamon Butter Biscuits:

  • 350 g plain flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 250 g cold, unsalted butter (or vegan block butter) cubed
  • finely grated zest of 2 oranges
  • 150 g icing (powdered) sugar
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg yolk (omit for vegan) (save the white for the royal icing)
  • 1-2 tsp milk/non-dairy milk (as needed)

Royal Icing:

  • 235 g icing (powdered) sugar sifted
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice (and more as needed)
  • 1 large egg white (reserved from making the biscuits) (or 5 teaspoons aquafaba)

Instructions

Orange Cinnamon Butter Biscuits:

  • Place the flour, salt, butter and orange zest in a food processor and blitz until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar and cinnamon and blitz again to mix through.
  • Add the vanilla extract and egg yolk and blend again. If the dough doesn't come together then add a little bit of milk, a teaspoon at a time until it does. Be careful not to add too much liquid though, stop as soon as the dough begins to clump together.
  • Shape the dough into two discs, wrap in clingfilm and pop them in the fridge for half an hour.
  • Roll the discs out on a lightly floured surface to about 4mm thick and use floured cutters to cut out your choice of shapes. Place them slightly spaced apart on a couple of baking trays lined with baking parchment.
  • Re-roll the scraps and cut out more shapes. Place the baking trays in the freezer for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Bake the frozen biscuits for about 10 minutes, until lightly golden. Leave to cool on the trays for 5 minutes then carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Royal Icing:

  • Once the biscuits are cool, make the royal icing. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the lemon juice. Stir in the egg white or aquafaba a little at a time until the icing is smooth and thick but pipe-able; if you drizzle some back into the bowl the pattern should disappear after about 8 seconds. If it is too thick then add a little more egg white (or lemon juice if you've run out), and if it is too runny then add a little more sifted icing sugar.
  • Spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a 1mm plain round nozzle. Pipe snowflake designs onto the biscuits (Pinterest is a great place to get inspiration for patterns!) and set them aside for half an hour to dry.