These biscuits were meant to be red buses but ended up looking more like trucks! Whatever they were they were fun and easy to make and very tasty.
You’ll need:
- Butter (250g softened)
- Caster sugar (140g)
- Plain flour (280g)
- Egg yolk (1)
- Vanilla extract (2 tsp)
- Icing sugar (50g)
- Red food colouring
- Black fondant icing
- Cardboard or a bus/car cookie cutter
- Mixing bowl
What to do:
- Make the biscuits by mixing 250g butter and 140g caster sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or an electric whisk.
- Add the egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix so it’s all combined
- Sift in the 280g of flour and mix well (start mixing with a spoon then use your fingers so everything is combined into a ball)
- Cover the dough ball with cling film and leave in fridge for at least half an hour to rest
- While the dough is resting draw out a bus shape on cardboard and cut out to act as a stencil/make shift cookie cutter
- Roll out the dough on a floured work surface till about as thick as a pound coin
- Place your cardboard stencil on the dough and use a sharp knife to cut around it
- Place the cut out buses on a tray lined with grease proof paper
- Cook in the oven at 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes until the biscuits are all golden brown, then leave biscuits to cool
- While cooling, make up the icing sugar by mixing about 50g icing sugar with a few drops of water and a few drops of red food colouring (add more water if the mixture doesn’t drop off the spoon but not too much or it’ll be very runny)
- Roll out the black fondant icing and use something round to cut out the wheels. Cut a few thin strips for the windows and a shorter, thicker strip for the drivers window
- Once the biscuits are cool add the red icing using a spoon (you can also use a piping bag if you want to be neater) then once the icing has partially set add the black wheels and windows
Hints and tips
– Making a cardboard cookie cutter can be a bit more fiddly but saves buying lots of extra cooking equipment
– The biscuits will spread slightly during cooking (depending on how much the dough has been worked) so don’t be too detailed with your shape cutting
– Our buses weren’t quite tall enough and our wheels were too big to fit 2 rows of windows which would have made them look more bus like. Make sure to test wheel and window size against the cooked biscuits
– The buses don’t have to be red, you could use yellow for a more traditional school bus if required
Recycle and Reimagine 