150 degrees C (cooler oven!! they bake quickly!)
Makes 2 large oven trays full. (½ quantities for a smaller bake)
Dough keeps in fridge over night+

You will need:
Greaseproof paper
Biscuit cutters – festive preferably! Or a sharp knife
2 large or several small baking trays
Rolling pin
2 equal thickness 2-3mm spatulas or sticks. Or a steady hand when rolling.

Ingredients: makes 2 large oven trays worth. (you can half them for just one tray...)

200g (7 oz) butter or marge.
120g golden caster sugar (or whatever sprinklable you have!)
200g (7 oz) plain flour
100g (4 oz) fine semolina or ground flax seed.
(if you don’t have the last ingredient – you can add more flour)
Sugar to sprinkle.

Preheat Oven to 150 degrees C (fan) / 300 deg F Gas mark 2

Method: Weigh & Mix,,,
1. Put the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon or fork, mix together until they look like a smooth paste.
2. Sieve the flour into the bowl.
3. Add the semolina or ground seed, and stir the mixture well
4. When it seems as if the mixture won’t stir any more, use your hands to knead it. You will find it combines together into a ball. The dough will be ready when it is smooth and there are no bits left on the sides of the bowl.
5. If the dough is very greasy, add more flour a little at a time (it depends on the fat you have used – block butter / block marge will be more solid)
6. Make into a fat sausage shape, and place in the fridge to cool for ten minutes or longer / even over night if you have time, particularly if you have a warm kitchen.

Chill!!
7. Once chilled, place your dough between 2 sheets of baking paper.
8. Place your 2 thin spatulas either side of the dough between the sheets (with some space for spreading! Roll out the dough to the thickness of your sticks / spatulas. 2-3mm.
9. Using biscuit cutters, cut out shapes, remove the spare dough around each shape, and using a palette knife carefully lift up the shapes onto a pre greased baking tray, allowing a little room for a slight spread of the shape. The dough is quite moist and soft, so this may be a little delicate. Add more flour and knead in if it is too soft and try again!
10. Any spare dough, or if you are short on time, you can shape into little balls, and press down with your hand or with a fork for a pattern. Making indents / texture is good as it catches the sprinkled sugar at the end.
11. Bake in the moderate oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the biscuits are very slightly browned at the very edges, no longer. thinner biscuits will need less time.
12. Whilst still warm, sprinkle on a little extra sugar.
13. Let cool for a few minutes, then gently ease off the biscuits with a palette knife and put onto a wire rack to cool.
14. Place on a nice plate, and enjoy with a nice cup of tea and your Christmas bubble!

Try this for fun too!
5 pointed Christmas Stars carrying gifts.

If you have a 5 pointed star shape, or can cut one out with a sharp knife, you can put this on the baking tray, place a raisin just on the start of one of the star “arms” and fold the arm over to hold the raisin, you can then put on 2 little eyes of icing after, and it looks like the star is carrying the raisin gift!