How to make Christmas Pudding Gingerbread Biscuits

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1. Place 3 tbsp water into a medium saucepan with the sugar and syrup. Stir until the sugar has dissolved then bring to the boil.
2. Once boiled remove from the heat. Add the diced butter and stir until melted.
3. Whisk in the bicarbonate of soda, it will foam a little. Add the flour and spices, beat well to make a soft dough.
4. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for 3 hours or overnight until firm enough to roll out.
5. Line 2- 3 baking trays with baking parchment and pre heat the oven to 200°C (180°C for fan ovens) or Gas mark 6.
6. Dust the work surface with flour and roll out the dough to the thickness of a £1 coin and cut out round biscuits approximately 8cm in diameter.
7. Bake for 10-12 mins or until just turning darker brown at the edges. Allow to cool completely before removing from the tin.
8. Make up the icing sugar as directed on the packet. Once you have achieved the right consistency, mix 6 tbsp of icing with the green food colouring, 1 tbsp with red food colouring and 1 tbsp with brown food colouring.
9. Place the white and green icing into piping bags with a fine plain nozzle. Pipe the outline of the holly in green, and the custard in white on each biscuit. Allow to set for a few minutes.
10. Mix the remaining white icing with enough water to give a thick pouring consistency and spoon or pipe into the ‘custard’ outline, using a cocktail stick to push the icing into the outline. Allow to set for about 30 mins.
11. Reserve a little of the green icing to use as veins on the leaves, then dilute the remaining with a little water to give a thick pouring consistency. Pour into the holly outline and use a cocktail stick to make sure it goes into all the points of the leaves. Leave to dry for 30 mins then pipe the vein on top with the thicker green icing.
12. Place the red and brown coloured icings into 2 piping bags and snip the end to give a small hole. Use these to pipe the red berries and brown currants on to the biscuits. Leave to dry overnight.
13. Your Christmas Pudding Gingerbread biscuits will keep in a cake tin for 1-2 weeks, making them an ideal gift or treat for the festive period.

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