While the children are off school, keep them busy by making these delicious Christmas tree biscuits together. Lightly spiced with cinnamon and ginger, these sweet treats will look lovely hanging from the tree and taste delicious. They also make lovely gifts for the grandparents.

Cooks in: 1 Hour

Makes: 30-40 biscuits

Ingredients

For the biscuits

175g dark muscovado sugar

85g golden syrup

100g butter

3 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 egg, lightly beaten

To finish

100g white chocolate, broken into pieces

Christmas sugar sprinkles

Method

Melt the butter in a pan with the sugar and golden syrup. Mix the spices, flour and bicarbonate of soda together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in the melted butter and mix well. At this stage the mix will be soft but will firm up on cooling.

Wrap the biscuit mix with cling film and leave to cool in the fridge for at least 1 hr to become firm enough to roll out.

Heat the oven to 190C. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough in half. Thinly roll out one half. Cut into shapes with Christmas cutters. Transfer the shapes onto baking sheets, leaving a little room for them to spread. If you plan to hang the biscuits up, make a small hole in the top of each one using a straw or skewer. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake for 12-15 mins until golden. If the holes you have made have closed up, remake them with the skewer while the biscuits are still warm. Cool for a few mins on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Melt the chocolate gradually in the microwave using 30 second bursts and stirring between each, until smooth. Carefully put the melted chocolate into a piping bag and pipe shapes onto the biscuits. Add festive sugar sprinkles if you like. If you hang the biscuits on the tree, they will be edible for about a week, but will last much longer as decorations.

Loved this recipe for Christmas Tree Biscuits? Discover more recipes here.