Freezer Biscuits
These biscuits are great as you can mix up a big batch, keep it in the freezer then take some out and bake them whenever you want them - fifteen minutes to eating time. They're a good basic recipe too - make up the plain dough and add flavourings to make different versions.
Ingredients:
- 250g softened butter
- 1½ cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp vanilla
- optional flavouring of choice (see below)
Method:
- cream butter and sugar
- add eggs one by one and beat until combined.
- fold in flour and vanilla with a spoon.
- roll into three sausage shapes about 5cm in diameter or square the dough up for square or rectangular biscuits
- wrap each in cling wrap and freeze until required - they may be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months in in the fridge for a week.
- when ready to bake, slice biscuits off the frozen sausage
- place onto a greased or lined tray
- bake till very pale gold at 200C.
- remove from tray while warm and cool on a wire rack
- store in a sealed container.
Flavourings:
- Chocolate: add 2 tab of cocoa powder to the mix.
- Choc chip: add 1/2 cup grated chocolate. Don't use buttons because the mixture will crumble too easily
- Coconut: add half a cup coconut; this is also good with orange zest or a splodge of jam or both instead of vanilla. Balls of dough can also be rolled in coconut.
- Spice: add 1 tsp of mixed spice, allspice or combine either spice with ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger.
- Orange or lemon: omit the vanilla and add 2 tab grated orange or lemon zest.
- Ginger: add 1 tab ground ginger or 1/3 cup chopped glace ginger.
- Jam: allow the dough to soften and make an indent in centre of each biscuit with your pinkie or end of a marking pen and place a teaspoon of jam in the hole.
- Nuts: add 3/4 cup of finely chopped nuts of choice - walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamias, almonds are all good.
- Oatmeal: substitute 1 cup of rolled oats for 1 cup of flour - some spice would also work well with this mixture
- Cornflake: substiture 1/2 cup of cornflake crumbs for 1/2 cup flour.
I usually split the dough into thirds and then add some flavourings so that I have a choice of three different biscuits.