Easy biscuit recipes for children and tips on how to help get children involved

During Advent a lot of people enjoy making biscuits for Christmas. Homemade biscuits are delicious and something a lot of people enjoy nibbling on. Children enjoy baking and it is a good idea to try and get them involved as they can help with cutting out different shapes from the dough. Once the biscuits have been in the oven and cooled down children can help to decorate them. If you would like to bake biscuits with your children, you can find simple Christmas biscuit recipes for children in this article.

Baking biscuits is a lovely activity for children at Christmas time, as they can get creative and create some delicious works of art. In addition, children of all ages can help with baking biscuits for example, younger children can help 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, however, there are a couple of things you need to be mindful of when baking with children. Below you will find some useful tips onkitchen safety for baking with children:

• When baking with children make sur to plan enough time so that everyone can enjoy the activity without any stress. Playing some Christmas music in the background will get everyone into the Christmas spirit and make baking even more fun.

• It's best to choose simple Christmas biscuit recipes for younger children that can be made quickly and easily such as the recipes below. Its best to avoid recipes where the biscuit mixture needs to be left to rest for a long time as children can become bored and lose interest.

• Whilst baking always make sure to keep an eye on your children. 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 way, they will gain confidence in baking and decorating biscuits.

• Very young children and primary school aged children, who tend to be impatient often don't have the patience to bake for hours. To avoid boredom or frustration, you can cut out and bake the biscuits with your children on one day and decorate them the next day.

• When 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 allows you to easily clean up any mess.

• To ensure that the dough and the biscuits are a success you should only use some of the dough for cutting out and you should leave therest to cool for later. This will allow your children to take more time with cutting out Christmas shapes.

• When baking biscuits with children experts advise not to eat any of the biscuit mixture as it contains raw egg. Instead, you can snack on some of the cake decorations such as sprinkles, chocolate chips, sultanas, nuts and small chocolate beans which are just as delicious.

• After you have finished baking and decorating your biscuits, you can encourage your children to help you clean up. This is important to help children to learn that once you have finished doing one activity and before starting the next activity you need to clean up and tidy things away.

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Another good idea is …

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.

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1. First put the dry ingredients one by one into a bowl and then knead them briefly with an egg and the butter to make a dough. Leave the dough to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

2. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 180 °C top/bottom heat (fan oven: 160 °C) and then prepare everything with your children so that you can roll out the dough and cut out the biscuits.

3. After the dough has rested you can roll it out to approx. 5 mm thick and then cut it out with biscuit cutters. You can then place the biscuits onto some grease proof paper on a baking tray and bake the biscuits for around 7 to 10 minutes.

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A little tip…

make sure to leave the dough to rest in the fridge before using biscuit cutters to cut out the biscuits. It is a good idea to prepare it yourself and then once it is ready you can cut out the biscuit with your children.

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Chocolate chip biscuits are delicious and great for Christmas. Below you will find an easy recipe on how to make chocolate chip biscuits with your children.

• 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 baking cocoa

• 80 g icing sugar to roll the biscuits in

1. 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, baking cocoa and a pinch of salt. When the butter and chocolate have melted add them to the other ingredients. Finally, beat the three eggs into the dough and then knead them. Make the dough into a roll and then wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for around 30 minutes.

2. 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.

3. After the dough has rested you can divide it into about 40 equal pieces. Your children can shape them into balls and then roll them in icing sugar. Afterwards, put the balls onto a piece of grease proof paper on a baking tray. The biscuits will melt a little bit and crack at the top and this will give the biscuits a nice sparkly look thanks to the icing sugar.

4. Put the biscuits in the oven and leave them to bake for around 8 to 10 minutes.

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C top/bottom heat (fan oven: 160 °C).

2. Stary by mixing the baking powder with the flour and add the rest of the other ingredients (sugar, oat flakes, nuts) to the mixture. Now add the butter and the egg and mix everything into a mouldable dough.

3. Your children can also help you to form small balls from the dough and then place them on a piece of grease proof paper on a baking tray. Make sure to space them out evenly on the baking tray. The biscuits will melt and become flatter.

4. Put the biscuits into the oven and leave them to bake for around 15 minutes. Afterwards you can cover them with a coat of chocolate or decorate them with some sprinkles.

Children of any age can help out with decorating biscuits once the biscuits have cooled down. You should get the cake decorations in advance so that you have everything at home so you can bake some Christmas biscuits with your children. Below we have put together a list of cake decorations that you should get:

• 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

To ensure that the sprinkled decorations last when you make some Christmas biscuits with your children, you can either use a chocolate icing made from cooking or icing chocolate or you can make your own. You just need to mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice with 6 tablespoons of icing sugar, and you can start decorating.

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Get inspired

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".

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Baking biscuits with children is great fun at Christmas time. Many children love to knead the dough, use biscuit cutters to cut out the different shapes and then finally decorate them. It's best to choose easy to follow biscuit recipes for your children so that they can get creative and involved. By doing so this popular Christmas activity will be fun for everyone.

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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)

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