Orange & ginger stained glass biscuits

Orange & ginger stained glass biscuits

Kids will love to make these magical Christmas biscuits and hang them with pretty ribbon

Difficulty and servings

Easy

Makes 14

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 15 mins

Cook time

Cook 20 mins

Freeze raw dough for up to a month

Method

  1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Grease 2 large non-stick baking sheets with oil. Whizz the flour, ginger, zest and butter with 1⁄2 tsp salt to fine crumbs in a food processor. Pulse in the sugar and milk, then turn out and knead briefly on a floured surface until smooth. Wrap in cling film, then chill for about 30 mins.
  2. Flour the work surface again, then roll out the dough to the thickness of a £1 coin. Use 7cm cutters to cut out shapes, then use 4cm cutters to cut out the middles. Re-roll leftover pieces. Make a hole in the top of each biscuit, then carefully lift onto the baking sheets.
  3. Crush the sweets in their wrappers with a rolling pin, then put the pieces into the middles of the biscuits - the sweets should be level with the top of the dough. Bake for 15-20 mins or until the biscuits are golden brown and the middles have melted.
  4. Leave to harden, then transfer to a rack to cool. Thread with ribbon, then dust with icing sugar. Will keep for a month, but best eaten within 3 days.

Per serving

160 kcalories, protein 2g, carbohydrate 23g, fat 8 g, saturated fat 5g, fibre 1g, sugar 10g, salt 0.14 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, December 2008.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • 10 December 2008

    Magic Maggie rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I've never baked a biscuit in my life! Thought I'd try my hand at these and was absolutely enchanted with the way they turned out! So easy to make, beautiful to look at. I dropped some tiny silver confectioner's wedding balls into the centres while they were still warm and soft from the oven and they look fabulous!

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  • 13 February 2009

    George rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Really lovely, tasty biscuits! Shame I overcooked them slightly - I have a fan oven and cooked them for 15 mins but that was too long - I think 10 mins would have been enough.

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  • 20 September 2009

    Donna rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    The biscuit recipe is great. I found it impossible to crush the boiled sweets so used them whole and let them melt down. After a bit of trial and error, I found that cooking the biscuits for 7-8 minutes then adding a whole sweet and cooking for another 7-8 minutes worked really well. The glassy centre had less bubbles this way. If you overcook them the centres can all caramelise and end up orange/brown. Adding the sweets half way through kept the colour of the original sweet better.

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  • 22 November 2009

    annie commented on this recipe

    how long will these biscuits keep please

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  • 21 December 2009

    Captain Cactus commented on this recipe

    This recipe didn't work very well for me. Every time I tried to get the biscuits off the greased paper the sweets stuck and the paper ripped off with it :(

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  • Binder photo ktb

    22 December 2009

    ktb rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    These are soooo pretty when on the tree! With my first batch i didnt use baking paper and although some were tricky to get off the tray they were better than the second batch. I used baking paper and they were a disaster basically had to bin them all. I will probably add the sweets half way too next time as they all turned out a yellowy colour...great with ribbons and as gifts!

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  • 24 December 2009

    jackamy rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • 15 April 2010

    B1akemank rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I love this recipe, its so simple. The biscuits are a lovely taste and texture (not too gingery) with the novelty crystal centre. They make the perfect present in a nice glass jar with pretty ribbon

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  • Binder photo ali

    15 November 2010

    ali commented on this recipe

    this was a great recipe that i had massive fun making, all my family were very impressed and they got eaten up quickly!

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  • 01 December 2010

    Joanne cooks rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    These looked amazing but didn't fare well in my damp flat. I came home after being away over Christmas to fine sticky sugar had dripped from the biscuits all over my tree.

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  • 02 December 2010

    nomnom rated and commented on this recipe

    1 stars

    I didn't think that the biscuits tasted particularly good and if I were to make them again I may try it with mixed spice instead of orange and ginger. I also had particular difficulty getting them off the tray whole, even when oiled. The sweets stuck too much! They do look pretty, especially with silver pearls pushed in the sugar but i think that on the whole they were a bit disappointing :(

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  • 04 December 2010

    janb0604 commented on this recipe

    What sweeties are best for this recipe? thanks

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  • 06 December 2010

    Olijaz rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    We used foxes glacer fruit sweets, and the look great on the christmas tree once decorated, we agree that they could taste alittle better and the hard sweet/biscuit contrast takes time to get used to, maybe next time we would swap ginger and orange for cinnamon and mixed spice for more a more festive flavour. Overall these look great on the christmas tree.

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  • 07 December 2010

    Olijaz commented on this recipe

    Be warned the sweets melt and make a horrible mess over your tree and any presents below.

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  • 10 December 2010

    Emms rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I thought this was a great recipe and the orange and ginger give it a lovely flavour, not to sugary like plain biscuits. I also used foxes glacier fruits for the centres as these have the best flavour in my opinion. I baked the biscuit without alone for 5 or 6 mins added 1 or 2 whole sweets to the centre (no need to smash them up) and baked for another 5 or 6 mins. Worked a treat! I also think that if they are being hung as decorations they should be wrapped in a decorative bag first to keep the air and condensation out.

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  • 12 December 2010

    DizzyBrunetteGirl rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    Found these really tricky as the pastry is really weak without a centre and so kept falling apart. Those that I managed to get on a baking tray came out ok though, sweets didn't stick to the tray thankfully (trick is to probably wait for them to set before lifting off, and to use a greased non-stick baking tray), but I agree with earlier comments that the biscuits themselves aren't really that tasty/flavoursome... won't be making these again, as they were a trial for Christmas hampers and they didn't pass! Thank you for the suggestion to put the sweets in half way through, they came out very well and didn't lose their colour.

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  • 12 December 2010

    SueB rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Just made these ,the biscuit is delicious ,but had i mis-hap with the sweet centers,totally my fault but it did make me laugh but ruined my first batch,and thought i`d share it so others don`t do it.I bought sherbet sweets by mistake and thinking they`d still be ok they deffinatly weren`t !!! The sherbet made them fizz up and froth up quite messy. I retried with some clear mints and they came out beautiful but 2 i did on my ceramic tray stuck badly but the ones done on well greased trays came up really easily ,also they cooled quickly in the trays,lovely recipe will do again well worth the effort ,Thanks

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  • 12 December 2010

    SueB commented on this recipe

    Forgot i also rolled mine about 1 and a half thickness of a £1 coin maybe that helped them from breaking and once cool they are quite strong and rigid.

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  • 23 December 2010

    Emily commented on this recipe

    We had a disaster with oiled baking trays... totally stuck to the trays, biscuits broke up when trying to get them off. Put the last lot on tin foil on top of the tray and those came off perfectly. I think the orangey biscuits are delicious, and the sweets make the biscuits look special. I also had trouble making the holes with a skewer, kept breaking the dough. Managed to make a slot by cutting the dough with a knife once it was on the tray, then poking the unwanted bit of dough out with the skewer.

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  • 03 January 2011

    Cocoa-bean11 rated this recipe

    3 stars

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Difficulty and servings

Easy

Makes 14

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 15 mins

Cook time

Cook 20 mins

Freeze raw dough for up to a month

Ingredients

  • sunflower oil , for greasing
  • 175g plain flour , plus extra
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • zest 1 orange
  • 100g butter , cold, cut into chunks
  • 50g golden caster sugar
  • 1 tbsp milk
  • 12 fruit-flavoured boiled sweets
  • icing sugar , to dust
  • about 120cm thin ribbon , to decorate
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Per serving

160 kcalories, protein 2g, carbohydrate 23g, fat 8 g, saturated fat 5g, fibre 1g, sugar 10g, salt 0.14 g

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