Wednesday, November 10, 2010

A Christmas Favourite...

Today I thought I would share a favourite Christmas recipe that I have made for years now and it is absolutely delicious.  It is also great for presents and I use the Christmas trees cookie set (that I just purchased today) from Kmart to make the trees (actually last year and years passed I only had 3 cookie start cutters so this year I upgraded to 5 star sizes) The cookie cutter set is in Kmart right now for $5. 

So here it is.  I know this is from a magazine but I have no idea which one so I can't help you there. 

Pistachio Shortbread trees

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter, softened

1 cup pure icing sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

2 cups plain flour
½ cup cornflour
80g packet of pistachios, finely chopped
Extra flour, for kneading
Extra 125g unsalted butter, softened
Extra ½ cup pure icing sugar, sifted
Finely grated rind of 1 lime and 2tsp juice
Extra pure icing sugar, sifted for dusting
Edible silver dust


Method
Preheat oven to 160 C. Line 3 baking trays with baking paper. Beat Butter, icing sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and creamy. Using a wooden spoon, mix in the flours and pistachio.


Gently knead dough on lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide the dough in half and pat into 2 discs. Put 1 disc between 2 sheets of baking paper and then roll out until 5mm thick. Repeat for other disc. Use small, med and large start shaped cutters to cut out 16 of each size. Put stars on prepared trays, one size per tray and bake for 10-15 min or until biscuits are golden. Stand trays on a wire rack for 5 min then transfer biscuits to a wire rack to cool.


Put extra butter, extra icing sugar, lime rind and juice in the bowl of the electric mixer and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Put 1 tablespoon of butter mixture in a small bowl and reserve.


Spread a little of the butter cream on 1 side of 8 small, 8 medium and 8 large start biscuits. Top each star with a matching biscuit and press gently together. TO make the trees, put a large joined biscuit on a flat surface, put ½ tsp of the reserved butter cream onto the centre of the star, top with a med joined biscuit. Put a little of the butter cream on the top and then add a small star biscuit. Dust each tree with icing sugar and a little edible sliver dust.

Easy to make, super yummy to eat and a really nice handmade present for anyone!

Enjoy...

2 comments:

  1. Am excited by this recipe as I loooovvveee these biscuits-thank you!

    Suzy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Deb, trial version being happily munched and devoured by all as we speak! Tanya

    ReplyDelete

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