Union Jack shortbread
These glitzy and glittery Union Jack biscuits are the perfect bake to bring to a Coronation or Eurovision party. You will be suitably covered in glitter and sprinkles after making them, ready for the celebrations.
To make this recipe you'll need piping bags and a 5.5x8.5cm/2¼x3½in cutter (or similar size).
Ingredients
For the shortbread
- 180g/6oz salted butter, at room temperature
- 85g/3oz caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
- 270²µ/9¾´Ç³ú plain flour, plus extra for sprinkling
For the royal icing
- 60²µ/2¼´Ç³ú egg white (from approximately 2 free-range eggs), plus extra if needed
- 360²µ/12½´Ç³ú icing sugar, sieved, plus extra if needed
- dark blue and red gel food colouring
To decorate
- edible sprinkles
- edible glitter
Method
Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicone mats (ideally, make sure these trays fit in your fridge or freezer).
To make the shortbread, beat together the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl until smooth and combined. This can be done with an electric whisk or use a spatula to repeatedly press the butter and sugar together against the side of the bowl to combine. Whisk in the vanilla bean paste.
Add the flour and use a spatula to mix into a smooth dough. You may find it easier just to use your hands after a while. Aim to minimise how much you handle the dough though – the less it is worked, the less the gluten develops which makes for a more melt-in-the-mouth final result.
Turn out onto a well-floured surface. Sprinkle the top of the dough with a very light dusting of flour and roll out until the dough is about the thickness of a pound coin (or a Euro!).
Stamp out rectangle shapes with a 5.5x8.5cm/2¼x3½in cutter (or similar size) and transfer to the baking trays. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Bake for 12 minutes or until a pale golden colour. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing, add the egg white to a bowl and whisk with the icing sugar until smooth. To check for the right consistency, run a knife through the icing – it should take around 15–20 seconds to return to a smooth consistency. You may need a little more icing sugar or egg white to adjust the consistency slightly.
Transfer a quarter of the icing to a separate bowl and stir through the red gel food colouring. Transfer another quarter of the icing to another bowl and stir through the blue gel food colouring. Leave the remaining main bowl of icing white.
Put around a teaspoon of white icing into one piping bag and the remaining white icing into another piping bag (you may find it easier to split this larger amount between a couple of piping bags).
Transfer the blue icing and red icing each to their own piping bags. Use scissors to cut a very small opening in the smaller piping bag of white icing and the two red and blue piping bags. Cut larger openings in the piping bag(s) with the larger amount of white icing (this is for ‘flooding’ or filling in within the border).
With the smaller piping bag of white icing, pipe boarders all around the edges of the biscuits. Then, use the larger white piping bag to fill them in with white icing, making sure you get an even coating on each biscuit. Let that dry, then use the red and blue piping bags to draw the Union Jack flag – use our image above as a guide.
Finally, decorate with your choice of edible sprinkles and/or glitter.
Recipe Tips
For an even more melt-in-the-mouth texture, swap 50g/1¾oz plain flour for cornflour (so 220g/7¾oz plain flour and 50g/1¾oz cornflour).
If you want to speed up the process, you can cut the white background of the flag out of a thin layer of rolled fondant icing. Cut a rectangle of fondant the same size or slightly smaller than the biscuits. Paint the back of the fondant with a light brushing of water and stick onto the biscuits with firm pressure. Then ice the top instantly with red and blue royal icing.
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