Homemade Biscuits Recipe

In this post I will explain how to prepare biscuits easily at home.

You are free to give them any shapes you like using any biscuit cutters. You can create hearts, braids, animals or numbers with your cookies. It depends only on the cookies cutter you have at home.

Ingredients for shortcrust pastry:

• 2 eggs = 1 egg for baking
• 240 gr. butter
• 200 gr sugar
• 600 gr  plain flour
• 1 grated lemon
• a pinch of salt

Notes: In my previous link : how to prepare a sweet shortcrust pastry at home , you can see how the sweet shortcrust party should look like.

Preparation of shortcrust for biscuits

• Soften the butter until is soft, using your fingertips.
• In a bowl, add all the flour and make a well in the centre.
• Then add inside the sugar, the soft butter and 2 eggs.
• Knead all the ingredients together starting from the centre until well mixed. This is a very important step. Little by little, you’ll mix all the flour which is on the edge of the bowl.
• To help your self, you can create 3 small balls of pastry.
• Then pulse until each one is crumbly. 
• Combine all three pastry mixtures together and add the grated lemon (or few drops of lemon essence if you run out of lemon). It is always better to have the exact ingredients for a better taste.
• Work the dough for 5 minutes until the lemon is absorbed.
• Shape the dough into a big ball and leave it in the bowl covered with a film. If you like, you can also wrap tightly in plastic.
• Now cool the pastry until firm, at least 1 hour.
• Tip:If you will bake later on, you can keep it in the fridge for all the afternoon.
• Tip:If you don’t use all the sweet shortcrust pastry, remember to put it in the fridge. You must wrap in clingfilm.
• When it is ready, you have to take the biscuit cutters. In my case, I used biscuit cutters in the shape of stars.
• Tip: dip the biscuit cutter in the flour and then in the sweet shortcrust pastry. This will help you to realise the starts easily. Do the stars next to each other, in this world, will be more easy to remove the pastry advancing.
• Use a knife to put each star on the baking sheet because the shortcrust pastry is too soft. Do not use your fingers.
• Grease and flour the baking sheet.
• Place the stars on the baking sheet, well spaced apart.
• Then brush each star with a bit of beaten egg. This will give them a golden colour.
• When the biscuits are ready, remove them form the baking sheet. I loved the funny effect left on my baking sheet.

• Wait to cool down.
• Then you can eat them with a glass of sweet wine or with a tea, if you are a tea lover. I love wine, as italian girl. In this case, I choose a famous tuscan wine, called Vin Santo.

• Vin Santo or Vino Santo (holy wine) is a style of Italian dessert wine. Traditional in Tuscany, these wines are often made from white grape varieties such as Trebbiano and Malvasia.

Hope you enjoy these biscuits as much I did.

Alessandra Simple Recipes