The icing will start to set quickly once piped, so decorate with sprinkles quickly as you go. Or better yet, get someone to help you!
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Yields:
8 serving(s)
Prep Time:
35 mins
Cook Time:
30 mins
Total Time:
1 hr 5 mins
Cal/Serv:
331
Ingredients
FOR THE BISCUITS
135g
butter, softened
50g
caster sugar
11/2tsp.
vanilla bean paste
60g
ground rice/rice flour
150g
plain flour
TO DECORATE
225g
royal icing sugar, sifted
Green food colouring gel or paste
Sugar sprinkles, to decorate, see intro
YOU WILL ALSO NEED
Piping bag
Plain or star/fluted nozzle
Directions
Step 1For the biscuits, in a large bowl using a wooden spoon, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla, until smooth. Stir in the ground rice/rice flour until combined, followed by the plain flour. Using your hands, bring the dough together into a ball.
Step 2Place the dough between 2 large sheets of baking parchment and pat, then roll out to a rough 20cm circle, with an even 1cm thickness. Slide on to a baking sheet (still within parchment) and chill for 1hr.
Step 3Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Peel off the top sheet of parchment and use a large, sharp knife to slice the dough circle into 8 equal triangles through the centre (don’t separate). Trim the base of each triangle from a curve into a flat line (see GH TIP) to make an octagon.
Step 4Bake for 25-30min, or until pale golden and sandy to the touch. Leave to cool on the sheet until just warm, then slice along the triangle lines with a large knife to separate. Cool completely.
Step 5To decorate, in a medium bowl, whisk the royal icing sugar with a generous dash of green colouring gel/paste and 2-3tbsp cold water to make a very stiff but just pipeable consistency (adjust with more royal icing sugar or water, as needed).
Step 6Scrape into a piping bag fitted with a fine plain or star/fluted nozzle. Starting at the top of each biscuit, pipe down in a zigzag motion, making increasing conjoined horizontal lines to form a triangular- shaped tree. Decorate while wet with sugar sprinkles. Leave to set for at least 1hr (ideally overnight) before serving.
TO STORE Once set overnight store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
GH TIP You can press any trimmings into small, round biscuits (about 8mm thick) and bake alongside the triangles (spaced well apart).
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
