BakeBakeBake

For the Daring Baker's Challenge last month, we got to get our festive hats on and bake some celebration cookies.



The challenge was to bake one cookie from a list of 12, and one of your own cookies. 

These biscuits were such a hit, wherever they went. I got about 40 biscuits out of the recipe and gave packages of them to different family members. Everyone adored them and went back for multiple helpings. When I bake, I'm usually keen to pass the results over to everyone else to try, but even I wanted to grab a second of these. Yum!




For my next trick, I'd had thoughts of attempting something a bit fancy for the daring bakers. But really, how could I go past shortbread? No Christmas in my household is complete without them. That is, if the biscuits survive until Christmas.


I couldn't help but give the shortbread a little festive twist. I used Christmas sprinkles and poppy seeds to adorn the shortbread pre-baking. Some of them got holly...



... whilst Rudolf became trapped inside the others.



The shortbread recipe I used was a quick and easy version. A cheaters version, if you will: I used a melt 'n' mix method. I'd avoided it in the past as I thought it would not yield great shortbread. While you can't beat the original method, this shortbread is almost as good. Add to the fact that it is super quick and easy and any minute differences in the texture are erased from your mind. These were delicious, short and crumbly. everything that shortbread should be.

Here's my recipe for the shortbread:

Check out more photos or the printable recipe over at Cakecrumbs.