Tuesday 4 November 2014

Simple Firework Night Biscuits (Cooking With Kids)

If you've been invited to a firework night party or just want something to dip in your hot chocolate to warm up after an evening outside, these simple Firework Night Biscuits are perfect, and even better, the children can make them - with a little help from you.

Simple Firework Night Biscuits (Cooking With Kids)


Baking Mad kindly sent me a box of ingredients, and I've used their Easter Biscuit Recipe today because it gives the perfect base for icing.

Baking Mad product hamper Allinson Nielsen Massey and Billingtons

Ingredients
90g butter, unsalted, softened
100g sugar
1 egg, free range
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain white flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

Baking Mad suggest you use Golden Caster Sugar. I'm particularly fond of Billington's Sugars and have used Light Muscovado Sugar for my main recipe,  and also made some with Dark Muscovado Sugar, and some with Golden Caster Sugar. The Golden Caster Sugar will give you a slightly more toffee taste to your biscuits whereas the Muscovado gives a heavier and more fudgey taste and is brilliant for Winter baking with spices and dried fruit. 

Ingredients for easy Firework biscuits


Method

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.  In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until pale.  Beat in the egg and vanilla extract - we've used Nielsen-Massey vanilla etract.  Add the flour to the butter mix and mix until the dough is formed.

Wrap the cookie dough in cling film and chill for at least one hour, so that it becomes suitable for rolling. If you choose not to wait and roll, and just plonk your mixture on the baking tray you'll end up with a cakey biscuit like these...

Drop biscuits recipe
Flat cakey biscuits

Preheat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan, gas mark 3).  Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 0.5cm.  Cut out the cookies and transfer to baking sheets.  Roll up the trimmings and repeat stages above to make more cookies.

Easy Firework biscuits bonfire night recipe

Bake for around 10 minutes - the cookies will be soft, so let them cool for a couple of minutes before moving them gently onto a wire rack. They should be set enough to move, but not cool enough that they've welded themselves to the baking paper.

Leave to cool completely.

Easy shaped biscuits for icing recipe

Now the fun bit!

We all made 'firework' pictures at school by flicking paint onto paper - these can be pretty much the same, or you can use your artistic talent to actually 'draw' something.

Ingredients

Icing sugar
Food colouring
Water 

Method

Make tiny quantities of coloured icing - red, orange, yellow and white work best for fiery firework colours. It needs to be runny, but not watery, so only add drops of water to your mix.

Cover your table, valuables, children etc. Arrange your cookies for best coverage - a wire cooling rack works great if you have one. I covered some biscuits with a coating of purple icing in advance - to give that 'night time sky' effect. If you have time to spend then pipe royal icing around the edges, and fill it in. Clearly I didn't have that much time, and they're for the children to do really.

children decorating firework biscuits

Let the children loose with the icing, teaspoons, a pastry brush or unused (brand new) toothbrushes, or anything else that is food safe, clean and seems to work, and 'flick' the icing or let it drizzle from your spoon while you keep moving it around. 

drizzle icing onto biscuits to look like fireworks

Add glitter and stars if you wish...

children with biscuits they made
easy and quick bonfire night biscuit recipe

Enjoy! Have a fun, safe and uneventful bonfire night.


15 comments:

  1. Those look very tasty and like lots of fun!

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    1. Cheers Pippa! They are tasty, although the children like them more than I do, I'm not really a biscuit person :D

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you Bluey79 - they're so easy really, it's like cheating, but the children are very proud :)

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  3. They look very tasty looking and fun too!

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  4. Oh I love baking with LP and your boys look like they loved it! x

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  5. These look great! I bet the kids loved to make a mess and the eat it. Fab idea.
    I run the #LittleChefs linky, every Thursday-Monday. I'd love you to come and join in. This post is perfect xx
    #LetKidsBeKids

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    1. Thanks BakedPotatoMummy, I'll keep my eye open tomorrow! :)

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  6. Such a lovely idea - will def do these next year

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  7. You guys celebrate some guy trying to blow up parliament or is there some other holiday?

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    1. We actually celebrate the arrest and foiling of Guy Fawkes and the entire Gunpowder/Houses of Parliament plot. Fortunately it seems the education system is being less biased and more realistic nowadays, but when I was a child I was taught he was evil and deserved to be burned. Now at least they tell the children the govt. were bad towards Catholics. It's a holiday with a root best left in the past really, hence the modern 'firework night' as opposed to 'Guy Fawkes night'

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  8. Yum! I love making biscuits, especially with the kids, they are really easy but great fun to decorate aren't they!

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  9. They look lovely, almost too good to eat! #LittleChefs

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  10. These look very yummy and I am loving the decorating. Fab job :) #littlechefs

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