Easy biscuit recipes for children and tips on how to help get children involved
During the festive season, many kitchens are transformed into miniature bakeries, with everyone eagerly awaiting the chance to sample the delicious treats that are being baked. Baking biscuits is a fun Christmas activity for children of all ages, as even the youngest ones can help by cutting out fun shapes and decorating the finished biscuits. If you would like to bake Christmas biscuits with your children, you will find some simple recipes in this article.
How to make baking biscuits with children a fun experience
Baking biscuits is a lovely Christmas activity for children, as it allows them to get creative and make some delicious works of art. Children of all ages can help with this activity: younger children can cut out and decorate the biscuits, while older children can mix the dough and measure out the ingredients.
Baking at Christmas time can be lots of fun, but there are a few things to bear in mind. Below, you will find some useful kitchen safety tips for baking with children.
When baking with children, make sure you allow enough time for everyone to enjoy the activity without feeling stressed. Playing some Christmas music in the background will get everyone into the Christmas spirit and make baking even more fun.
For younger children, it's best to choose simple Christmas biscuit recipes that can be made quickly and easily, such as the ones below. It's best to avoid recipes where the mixture needs to be left to rest for a long time, as children may become bored and lose interest.
Always keep an eye on your children while baking. Make sure that younger children stay away from knives, mixers and hot ovens. Older children may be able to use a knife or a mixer on their own, depending on their experience, but you should still supervise them.
When baking biscuits with children, only offer them some help when they are struggling with something. This will help them to gain confidence in baking and decorating biscuits.
Very young children and primary school-aged children often lack the patience to bake for hours. To avoid boredom or frustration, you could bake the biscuits with your children one day and then decorate them the next.
For baking, it is best to use a large surface, such as a dining table, as it offers enough space for rolling out, cutting out and decorating. A wipeable oilcloth tablecloth makes cleaning up any mess easy.
To ensure that the dough is easy to work with and the biscuits turn out well, you should only use part of the dough for cutting out or shaping and keep the rest in the fridge in the meantime. This will allow your children to take more time with this step.
Experts advise against eating any of the biscuit mixture when baking with children as it contains raw egg. However, you can snack on cake decorations, such as sprinkles, chocolate chips, raisins, dried fruit and nuts, which are just as delicious.
After you have finished baking and decorating your biscuits, you can encourage your children to help you tidy up. This helps children learn that, once you have finished one activity, you need to clean up and tidy things away before starting the next one.
Let your children decide which biscuits they would like to bake. This will help them to look forward to baking and spending the afternoon together. It is also advisable to bake only one or two simple Christmas biscuit recipes in one afternoon.
Easy Christmas biscuit recipe
These classic Christmas biscuits are easy to make and great fun for children. They are great fun for children as they can get creative by using biscuit cutters to cut out different shapes from the dough.
You will need the following ingredients:
125 g chilled butter
200 g flour
100 g sugar
1 pack of vanilla sugar
1 egg
How to bake classic Christmas biscuits
Put the dry ingredients into a bowl one by one, then knead briefly with an egg and butter to make a dough. Leave the dough to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 °C top/bottom heat (fan oven: 160 °C) and prepare everything with your children so you can roll out the dough and cut out the biscuits together.
Once the dough has rested, roll it out to around 5 mm thick and cut it into shapes using biscuit cutters. Bake the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper for 7 to 10 minutes.
Tip: Make sure you leave the dough to rest in the fridge before using the cutters. It is a good idea to prepare the dough yourself, and then once it is ready, you can cut out the biscuits with your children.
Easy biscuit recipe for children: delicious chocolate biscuits
These delicious chocolate biscuits are great for Christmas. Below, you will find an easy recipe for making chocolate biscuits with your children.
You will need the following ingredients:
100 g butter
150 g sugar
220 g flour
100 g dark cooking chocolate or dark icing chocolate
1.5 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of cinnamon
1 tbsp cocoa powder
80 g icing sugar
How to bake chocolate biscuits
Start by melting the dark cooking or icing chocolate with the butter in a small saucepan. Meanwhile, mix the flour with the baking powder and then stir in the sugar, cinnamon, cocoa powder and a pinch of salt. Once the butter and chocolate have melted, add them to the other ingredients. Finally, beat the three eggs into the dough and then knead it. Shape the dough into a roll, wrap it in cling film, and leave it to rest in the fridge for around 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C top/bottom heat (fan oven: 160 °C) and prepare the worktop for making biscuits with your children. Pour the icing sugar into a bowl and place it on the worktop.
Once the dough has rested, you can divide it into around 40 equal pieces. Your children can then shape the pieces into balls and roll them in icing sugar. Place the balls on a baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving a little space between them. The biscuits will melt slightly and crack on the surface, giving them a nice, sparkly look thanks to the icing sugar.
Bake the biscuits in the oven for around 8 to 10 minutes.
Easy Christmas biscuit recipes for children: oat and nut biscuits
These biscuits are quick and easy to make with children. You can then get creative and decorate them however you like. One of the best things about this Christmas biscuit recipe is that the dough doesn't need to rest, so you can start baking straight away.
You will need the following ingredients:
125 g butter
150 g sugar
60 g flour
1 Tsp baking powder
1 egg
125 g oats
75 g chopped nuts
How to bake oat and nut biscuits
Preheat the oven to 180 °C top/bottom heat (fan oven: 160 °C).
Start by mixing the baking powder with the flour, then add the rest of the other ingredients (sugar, oat flakes, nuts) to the mixture. Then add the butter and egg, mixing everything together to form a malleable dough.
Now, together with your children, form small balls of dough and place them well apart on a baking tray lined with baking paper. The biscuits will melt and become flatter.
Put the biscuits in the oven and bake for around 15 minutes. Afterwards, you can cover them in chocolate or decorate them with sprinkles.
Decorating biscuits: the best cake decorations to use when decorating biscuits with children
Once the biscuits have cooled down, children of any age can help out with decorating them. Make sure you buy the cake decorations in advance so you have everything you need to bake Christmas biscuits with your children. Below, we have put together a list of decorations you might need:
chocolate beans
colourful sprinkles
chocolate chips
shimmer pearls
sugar stars
décor confetti
hazelnut brittle
coconut flakes
cake pens
food colouring to colour icing if needed
For icing:
chocolate icing
homemade icing use 1 lemon and some icing sugar
If you want the sprinkles to stick to your Christmas biscuits, you can either use shop-bought chocolate icing or make your own. Simply mix two tablespoons of lemon juice with six tablespoons of icing sugar and you're ready to start decorating!
Homemade biscuits are a great gift for family and friends at Christmas. You can even send them in the post if you wrap them up carefully. You can find instructions on how to do this in the following article "Sending Christmas cards and gifts".
Conclusion: easy to follow recipes for baking Christmas biscuits with children
Baking biscuits with children is a great Christmas activity. Many children love kneading the dough, cutting out different shapes with biscuit cutters and decorating the biscuits. It's best to choose simple biscuit recipes so that your children can get creative and involved. This popular Christmas activity will then be fun for everyone!
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Sources and further information:
https://baketotheroots.de/chocolate-biscuits/
(accessed on 29/09/2022)
https://www.easypeasyfoodie.com/easy-peasy-christmas-star-biscuits7
(accessed on 29/09/2022)
https://www.teawithmum.com/top-tips-for-baking-with-kids/
(accessed on 29/09/2022)
https://thomassixt.de/en/recipe/oat-biscuits/
(accessed on 29/09/2022)
The image sources in this text are in chronological order:
Cover photo: iStock.com/GMVozd
1st image in text: iStock.com/AleksandarNakic
2nd image in text: iStock.com/Maryna Andriichenko
3rd image in text: iStock.com/RgStudio