If you are looking for something to ease you into the Christmas feel- this easy orange biscuit recipe is the perfect bake to start with. Every year for Christmas I bake these biscuits, sometimes just for us to munch on (because they are very yummy), but sometimes- as Christmas gifts for family. In the past I have made these and put them in lovely glass jars and other years I have made these into big Homemade Christmas Gift hampers together with homemade gingerbread and other goodies.
This is an ideal gift if you are on a budget or want to add just a bit of a personal touch to all the other presents you have bought, or maybe you want a little ‘Christmas spirit’ gift to give to someone. These orange biscuits are amazing to all. (scroll all the way to the bottom to check out the gallery)
Orange Biscuit Recipe – made about 50 – 60 biscuits for me
Ingredients
- 250 g salted butter (softened, room temperature)
- 200 g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 450 g plain flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- orange zest from 2 oranges
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp orange extract (I used orange juice from the oranges) adjust to taste
Step 1
Grate the zest off your 2 oranges, then mix the orange zest with caster sugar (with your hands) until the sugar becomes like wet sand.
Step 2
Beat the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Quickly whisk the egg in a small bowl, then add the egg, vanilla and orange extracts to the butter & sugar mix, and mix until combined. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl- if you are using a stand mixer- I changed to the paddle attachment to make sure it combines and mixes well. If you are using a hand mixer- you will need to judge how far you can go with hand mixer and then move onto a wooden spoon or mix with hands. Mix it until combined. I usually make it into a nice dough log and wrap it into cling film and pop it in the fridge for a little bit, while I clean up the bowls and everything I’ve used thus far.
Step 3
Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Get your worktop ready for rolling the biscuit dough out on. Have some flour on the side for dusting the work surface, your hands (if needed) and the rolling pin. Take – probably about a quarter- of your dough and roll it out onto the surface. Make sure you don’t roll it out too thin as you won’t be able to lift the cut out biscuits onto the baking sheet.
Cut out your biscuits and place them onto your baking sheet that has been prepared on baking tray. If you need- use a pallet knife to help lift the biscuits off the surface. Make sure you leave 2-3cm gap between the biscuits on the baking sheet for spreading when they bake. I baked mine between 8-12 minutes depending on the sizes- bigger ones will need a bit more time in the oven. You can always start with 8 minutes and check and put them in longer if needed. Bake till they are just lightly golden-brown. Move them onto a wire cooling rack.
Step 4
This is where the fun part starts- DECORATING!!!
Of course, you can leave them as they are, and if my husband would have any say- I would never get to step 3 as he would have eaten them all as soon as they come out of the oven.
You can do as little or as much as you’d like. For this particular bake I went for just some icing (mix icing sugar and milk together and adjust how thick or runny you want it to be). You can make these very personal and write names on each biscuit (could be used as a gift tag) or just decorate them to be pretty to give you and the gift recipient- the perfect Christmas feeling.
I absolutely love these Orange Christmas biscuits- they are very easy to make, doesn’t take a lot of time (unless you spend hours decorating like I sometimes end up doing) and they are the perfect Homemade Christmas Gift for anyone. If you are making a holiday gift hamper- try mixing these up with some homemade gingerbread (recipe link here) to complete the yummiest Christmas gift.
Hope you enjoy making these using this super easy orange biscuit recipe.
Click on the photos below to enlarge them and go to Gallery!
Biscuits on Santas Hat! 
Biscuits decorated as Christmas baubles. 
Do you want to get your hands on these? 
Even Santa won’t be able to say No to these! 
Biscuits in the jar 
Do you want to make these? 
Snowflakes with blue icing 
Snowflakes with white icing
My Top Tips:
- get all ingredients measured out in separate pots before starting
- when you are weighing the flour – sift it directly in a spare bowl so it is all done when you adding it to the butter, sugar and egg mix
- I always roll my rolling pin in flour to make sure the dough doesn’t stick to it
What are your favourite Christmas goodies you like to munch on?
x
A
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