Crunchy Christmas Spiced Biscuits

These biscuits (or cookies) are inspired by the Crunchy Cinnamon Cookies I made over a year ago, but with a festive twist. 

I love gingerbread inspired biscuits and cakes, so these are a great addition to my Christmas biscuit repertoire. They are also a relatively quick biscuit to make, they don’t require too much time in the fridge, just enough so the dough firms up a bit. 

You can also freeze the dough if you’d like to make the recipe in stages - freeze either rolled into a log and roll the log in the spiced sugar mixture, or roll into balls as the recipe suggests but rather than baking you can freeze them at that stage (already rolled in the spiced sugar mix). Frozen biscuits will need about 2 minutes longer to cook, but check them as you go as that’s the best way to determine if they are ready. 

If you have leftover egg yolks after other Christmas baking, you can substitute the one egg in this recipe for two egg yolks to help use them up. 

I hope you have a very Merry Christmas, filled with lots of good food. 

Crunchy Spiced Christmas Cookies

Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter

125g caster sugar

100g dark brown sugar

2 tbsp treacle

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)

1 egg

290g self raising flour

1.5 tsp ground cinnamon

1.5 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cardamom 

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

2 tsp Demerara or raw sugar 

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper.

In a small saucepan melt the butter over low-medium heat. Once the butter has melted remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Then whisk in the caster sugar, brown sugar, treacle, vanilla and the egg. 

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp mixed spice, and all of the ground ginger, cardamom, clove and nutmeg. 

Add the butter mixture to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

Cover and chill in fridge for at least 20 mins (however you could do overnight).

In a small bowl mix together the remaining 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp mixed spice and the Demerara sugar.

Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and roll into your spiced sugar mix. Place on the prepared trays - the biscuits will spread as they bake so leave enough room in between. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. The biscuits will spread and flatten out as they good, and have a slightly crinkled look on the tops. Rotate the trays in the oven about halfway through to ensure the biscuits cook evenly.  

Allow to cool on their trays, then store in an airtight container. 

Makes about 34-36 biscuits.

Pistachio Filled Caramelised White Chocolate Cookies

The internet seems to be having a big pistachio moment right now. I have been having a pistachio ‘moment’ for many years now, I am happy to see everyone else is catching on to how delicious everything pistachio is.

There are a few recipes floating around that use a pistachio cream (crema di pistacchio) as a filling for cookies, plus a few bakeries selling cookies like this too. I am all for pistahcio cream anything, however, when it comes to using it in baking at home I really consider how I am going to use it.

Crema di pistacchio is an expensive ingredient, and sometimes not easy to buy. I have had multiple times I’ve found a brand of pistachio cream I like, only for the shop I bought it from to never sell it again. I’ve got the impression that these shop’s suppliers find it hard to import these products from Italy for whatever reason. But it’s really annoying to find something, enjoy it, then never be able to buy it again.

And that’s not to mention the price per jar, which is usually around $20AUD for a 180g or so jar. If I’m using a whole jar in one recipe, that’s an expensive bake.

There are Australian based brands that are making/selling pistachio creams/spreads that you could use. One of the brands I found was genuinely disgusting in flavour, and the other has quite a low percentage of pistachios in the spread. While the second brand I thought flavour wise was pretty good considering the low percentage of pistachios and the price, baking with it is still a rather expensive exercise. I also didn’t love how many ‘extra’ ingredients were contained in some of these spreads, compared to the imported Italian varieties.

Considering all that, I decided if I were going to make some cookies/biscuits stuffed with a pistachio spread, I was going to make the spread myself. A homemade pistachio spread or butter will have a better flavour than many of the bought pistachio creams, plus it won’t be quite as expensive!

I have been making pistachio butter/spread like the one in the recipe below for years (if you have my ebook Cosy Winter Bakes you might recognise the pistachio butter recipe!). The addition of white chocolate gives the pistachio spread a sweetness and creamy texture that is similar to the bought varieties.

When using homemade pistachio spread/butter as a filling in cookies, you won’t get that oozing of the pistachio spread out of the cookie (when the cookie is broken in half) like you would when buying a cookie like this or making one using crema di pistacchio. However, I think its a small price to pay for a delicious cookie, that doesn’t have to use up your very expensive jar of pistachio cream, and is decidedly less messy to eat as well!

Homemade Pistachio Butter/Spread

Pistachio Filled Caramelised White Chocolate Cookies/Biscuits

Ingredients:

170g raw pistachios

160g caramelised white choc (e.g. Caramilk, or any white choc)

120g unsalted butter, melted

180g caster sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk

1 egg, beaten

290g self raising flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp slivered pistachios (or roughly chopped whole pistachios)

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line a tray with baking paper. Place the pistachios on the tray, and roast in the oven for 5-7 minutes or until they are lightly golden and fragrant. Allow to cool. You won’t need your oven again for a while so you can turn it off for now.

Make the pistachio butter by blitzing the toasted pistachios in a food processor until they form fine crumbs. Measure out 50g of the pistachio crumbs and set aside, this will be used in the biscuit dough later. 

Melt 60g of the caramelised white chocolate, then add to the blitzed pistachios. Keep blitzing until the pistachios form a paste (this will take around 10 minutes, depending on your food processor). Scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl now and then to ensure everything is processing evenly. Once done the pistachio butter will be smooth and creamy, and the texture will seem light and soft. Place the pistachio butter in a bowl or container and leave in the fridge until it has chilled and firmed up (at least 1 hour, but you can do this step in advance and leave overnight).

To make the biscuit dough, place the melted butter, sugar, vanilla, milk and egg in a large mixing bowl, and whisk until combined.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, the 50g pistachio crumbs you set aside earlier, and the baking powder. 

Roughly chop the remaining caramelised white chocolate (100g), until you have small chunks. 

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and mix with a wooden spoon until almost combined. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until everything is combined.  

Cover the bowl and place in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes. 

Once the dough has chilled, divide it into 12 equal portions. 

Take one of the portions and remove about 1/3 of the dough. Press the remaining larger portion of dough into a flatter disc, allowing the sides to curl up like a birds nest. Place a heaped teaspoon of the chilled pistachio butter inside the dough. Bring the sides of the dough up around the butter, then place the remaining 1/3 of dough over the top of the pistachio butter filled biscuit and smooth out so there are no gaps. Gently roll the filled biscuit between your hands so it is a nice round shape. 

Continue with each of the portions of dough so you have 12 pistachio butter filled individual dough balls. You should use most if not all of the pistachio butter across the 12 biscuits. 

Place the dough balls on a lined tray or in a container (or similar), cover, and place in the fridge for 3 hours (or overnight). 

When ready to bake the biscuits, preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Ensure you have two large baking trays lined and ready. 

Spread the dough biscuit balls out over the prepared trays leaving enough room around the biscuits as they will spread. Sprinkle with the slivered pistachios, pushing them into the dough a bit.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until they are gently golden in colour. Rotate the trays in the oven at least once during the cooking time so the biscuits cook more evenly. If you can’t bake the biscuits all at once leave the dough balls in the fridge until you have oven space.

Allow to cool on the trays for 10 minutes before eating. 

Makes 12 large biscuits.

These cookies are a more cake-y style cookie, so they are the absolute best the day they are baked. You can store them in an airtight container or jar, however they will have a slightly softer texture than when they were first baked. You can refresh them a bit by putting them in the oven for 5-8 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius.

Macadamia and Davidson Plum Melting Moments

I love a good melting moment. They are a classic Australian sandwich biscuit (or cookie if you are outside of Australia), and paired with macadamia and Davidson Plum they just end up being a little more Australian for it.

Davidson Plum is an native Australian fruit, purple like many plum varieties, however not technically part of the plum family. Often called ooray by Indigenous Australians, this fruit was traditionally eaten raw and used for medicinal purposes. Now it is often found in freeze dried powder form.

The freeze dried powder gives an intense purple colour, though quite a mild flavour when used in smaller quantities (such as this recipe). Davidson Plum is quite sour, so if you want to increase the quantities in the icing, just keep that in mind and taste and you go.

If you don’t have access to freeze dried Davidson Plum powder, you can substitute with freeze dried blackberry or raspberry powder.

Macadamia and Davidson Plum Melting Moments

Ingredients:   

65g macadamias                                    

300g unsalted butter, softened

120g icing sugar/mixture

450g plain flour

Ingredients for the filling:

80g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar/mixture

2 tsp Davidson Plum powder

Method: 

Preheat oven to 145 degrees Celsius, and line three large baking trays with baking paper. 

Place the macadamias on one of the prepared trays, and toast in the oven for about 5-7 minutes, or until the macadamias are lightly golden.

Allow the macadamias to cool, then chop roughly into small pieces. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.

Add the flour and chopped macadamias to the creamed butter, and mix on low speed until a dough forms (cover your mixer with a tea towel to avoid the flour going everywhere). 

Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the prepared trays (you should end up with 40-44 individual dough balls/biscuits) leaving a little space in between each). Then lightly press down each ball with the back of a fork so they flatten out a little. Dip your fork in flour if it is sticking to the dough.

Bake for 25 minutes. They will be cooked when the undersides of the biscuits are lightly golden. To ensure a even bake, rotate the baking trays in the oven around half way through. 

Allow to cool on their trays.

Once the biscuits have cooled make the filling by beating the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment or by using a hand held mixer. Mix until light and fluffy and everything is well combined. Then add the Davidson Plum powder and mix until combined. 

Pair up the cooked biscuits, and turn one from each pair over so the underside is facing up. Spread or pipe the filling on to the underside of one biscuit in each biscuit pair, then gently sandwich the paired biscuits together. 

Gingerbread Melting Moments

These are a cross between a melting moment and a gingerbread biscuit and if I do say so myself, they are very good!

Like regular gingerbread biscuit the flavour improves over a day or two. You can mix up the spices if you like, but I highly recommend having a variety of spices like those in the ingredients list.

These would make a nice gift, however they are equally nice just to have in the biscuit jar at home for something to nibble on in the lead up to Christmas.

Gingerbread Melting Moments

Ingredients:                                       

300g unsalted butter, softened

100g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

450g plain flour

1.5 tsp ground ginger

1.5 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground cardamom

Ingredients for the filling:

80g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp ground cardamom 

Method: 

Preheat oven to 145 degrees Celsius, and line three large baking trays with baking paper. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla  until creamy.

Add the flour and spices to the creamed butter, and mix on low speed until a dough forms. 

Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the prepared trays (you should end up with 40-44 individual dough balls/biscuits) leaving a little space in between each. Then lightly press down each ball with the back of a fork so they flatten out a little. Dip your fork in flour if it is sticking to the dough.

Bake for 25 minutes. They will be cooked when the undersides of the biscuits are lightly golden. To ensure a even bake, rotate the baking trays in the oven around half way through. 

Allow to cool on their trays.

Once the biscuits have cooled make the filling by beating all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment or by using a hand held mixer. Mix until light and fluffy and everything is well combined. 

Pair up the cooked biscuits, and turn one from each pair over so the underside is facing up. Spread or pipe the filling on to the underside of one biscuit in each biscuit pair, then gently sandwich the paired biscuits together.

Leave the biscuits for half an hour or so for the filling to firm up a bit (you can do this in the fridge in warmer weather). Biscuits will store well in an airtight container for a few days. 

Makes about 46 individual biscuits and 23 sandwiched biscuits. 

Crunchy Cinnamon Biscuits

Just when I think I couldn’t possibly come up with any new biscuit ideas, a new idea floats my way.

A few weeks ago I was making some biscuits for my mum, and while I added vanilla to the biscuits they were otherwise a little plain (as can happen when catering to dietary requirements). I had frozen half the dough, so the next time I baked them I decided to try and make them a little more interesting. Since the dough was already rolled into balls ready for baking, I couldn’t add anything more to the actual biscuit dough. But I could roll the dough balls in something to make them more tasty. I decided on a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, which worked a treat. Even though the dough was still frozen, the cinnamon stuck to the outsides, and once baked, proved more flavoursome than the first batch.

I decided I needed to recreate these biscuits, but in a non-dietary requirement friendly way (I had used low fodmap flour the first time, which I think made the biscuits a little flat). So I returned to my trusty basic biscuit recipe, and spiced them up a little!

The result was a very tasty, crunchy and cinnamon crackled biscuit that I can now add to my ever growing list of ‘things I can bake with not much time, energy or even ingredients’.

For a festive version of this recipe, check out my Crunchy Christmas Spiced Cookies here.

Crunchy Cinnamon Biscuits

Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter, melted

125g + 1 tsp caster sugar

100g brown sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg, beaten

290g self raising flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper.

In a small saucepan melt the butter over low-medium heat. Once the butter has melted remove from the heat and mix in the 125g caster sugar, brown sugar, golden syrup, vanilla and the egg.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, 1 tsp ground cinnamon and all of the ground ginger and cardamom.

Add the butter mixture to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

Cover and chill in fridge for at least 20 mins.

In a small bowl mix together the remaining 1 tsp each of caster sugar and cinnamon.

Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and roll into your cinnamon sugar mix. Place on the prepared trays - the biscuits will spread as they bake so leave enough room in between. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Rotate the trays in the oven about halfway through to ensure the biscuits cook evenly. 

Allow to cool on their trays, then store in an airtight container. 

Makes about 36 biscuits.

White Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies

There are probably quite a number of recipes for white chocolate and macadamia cookies around, but I really felt a need to add mine to the mix. 

Originally I was making the recipe by Natalie from Beatrix (Melbourne), who shared her recipe on the TV show Everyday Gourmet. The recipe is online, and I’ve made it a couple of times. It is of course very good, but I have to say it is a more cakey kind of cookie which isn’t my top pick when eating a cookie. The cookie dough is very soft and almost wet, even after chilling in the fridge for 24 hours, it is still quite a messy dough to work with. 

I personally prefer a chewier crunchier cookie, and one that isn’t as messy to roll into balls before baking too. I also found due to the texture of the dough it was hard to make smaller sized cookies, which is usually my preference. Natalies recipe is meant to make really jumbo sized cookies, and even when trying to make them smaller the wetness of the dough prevented me getting them the size I really wanted.

So inspired by the Beatrix recipe, I have created my own, using my trusty cookie base recipe that I have used again and again as I am yet to find something I like as much, and something that is so easy to make. 

I have taken the idea from Natalie’s recipe to toast the macadamias first as it makes such a difference to the flavour. I have also used a combination of light and dark brown sugars as the addition of dark brown sugar adds a nice deeper flavour, without overdoing the sweetness. And this cookie can definitely go overboard with sweetness if you let it, there is something about the combination of white chocolate and macadamias that is inherently sweet so the addition of dark brown sugar tempers that a bit, along with the addition of salt. 

You can also sprinkle a little flakey sea salt over the biscuits before they are baked. I just don’t as I find the salt in the dough enough (I’m not one for adding salt to things on the whole, so it really comes down to personal preference), and I also inevitably forget to do it and realise only once the cookies have been baking for a few minutes and decide its too late now anyway…

I have tried making this recipe with lightly salted butter (the Lurpak brand) and it worked well with that - no need for additional salt sprinkling in this case. 

White Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies

Ingredients:

170g macadamias

125g unsalted butter, melted 

125g caster sugar

50g light brown sugar 

50g dark brown sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

1 egg

290g self raising flour

1/4 tsp kosher salt

100g white chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper.

Toasted the macadamias in the preheated oven for a few minutes (5-8 mins), or until they are nicely golden brown - keep an eye on them as you don’t want over toasted macadamias at this stage as they will go in the oven again later. Once the macadamias have cooled a bit, roughly chop so they are in varying sizes and shapes.

In a large bowl whisk together the melted butter, sugars, golden syrup, vanilla and egg.

Then add the flour, the chocolate chips and chopped macadamias, and mix to combine with a wooden spoon.

Place the dough in the fridge for at least 20 mins, to allow it to firm up a bit.

Increase your oven temp to 170 degrees Celsius.

Once chilled, roll heaped teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on the trays. The cookies will spread as they bake so leave enough room in between. 

If you can’t fit all the dough on your prepared trays (or oven), place the dough back into the fridge until you can bake it.

Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies have spread a bit and are golden brown. Rotate the trays in the oven about halfway through to ensure the cookies cook evenly.  

Allow to cool on their trays, then store in an airtight container. 

Makes about 33 cookies.