Tiny Festive Treats With Bonne Maman
Make your Christmas even more delightful by filling Bonne Maman jars with sweet, tiny festive treats. Delicious Chocolate Cherry Crinkles, Linzer Cookies and Spiced Sugar Snowflakes make a beautiful gift.
Chocolate Cherry Crinkles
A spoonful of luscious cherry conserve moulded into the dough gives these fudgy, crinkly cookies an irresistible brownie-textured centre.
Preparation time: 30min+ 2hrs chilling
Cooking time: 7-10min
Makes 15-18 mini mouthfuls
Ingredients:
- 85g granulated sugar
- 2tbsp (30ml) vegetable oil
- ½tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 75g plain flour
- 30g cocoa
- ½tsp baking powder
- Large pinch salt
- 45g icing sugar
- About 3tbsp Bonne Maman Black Cherry Conserve
To Make:
- Put sugar, oil and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat for 2-3min until combined. Alternatively, beat well with a wooden spoon.
- Add the egg and beat again for 2-3min.
- Slowly beat in flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. The mixture will look like raw cake mix at this stage but that’s OK. Cover with cling film and chill for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight, to firm.
- When ready to bake, heat the oven to 180C, 160C fan oven, gas mark 4. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment and put the icing sugar in a small bowl.
- With fingers dusted with icing sugar, pinch off small pieces of dough and roll into walnut sized balls. Press the balls into flat discs and put a generous ½tsp of conserve in the middle. Bring up the edges of the dough and pinch together to seal in the conserve.
- Roll again lightly into a ball and drop into the icing sugar. Roll around in the sugar until thoroughly coated and drop, seam side down, onto the lined tray.
- Bake the cookies for 7-10min or until they have risen and crinkled. Leave to cool, then store in an airtight jar.
Cook’s Tips:
- Make sure that there is plenty of icing sugar on the cookies before baking as some will melt into the dough. The excess forms the powdered effect on the outside. Don’t worry if a little conserve is showing before baking.
- The mixture will make 6-8 larger cookies – just bake for 3-4min longer.
- The tiny festive treats will keep in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Linzer Cookies
You can never have too many tiny festive treats, especially when they’re as good as these biscuits…
Preparation time: 30min
Cooking time: 8-10min
Makes 16-20 mini cookies or 8-10 standard size
Ingredients:
- 115g unsalted butter, softened
- 115g golden caster sugar
- 1 large egg, beaten
- ½tsp vanilla extract
- Large pinch salt
- 50g cornflour
- 225g plain flour
- About 100g Bonne Maman Conserve
- 2tbsp icing sugar
To Make:
- Heat the oven to 180C, 160C fan oven, gas mark 4. Line two baking sheets with non-stick baking parchment.
- Put butter and sugar in a stand mixer and beat together until smooth and fluffy. Alternatively, beat well with a wooden spoon.
- Add the egg, a little at a time, then stir in vanilla, salt and cornflour. Finally, add the flour, a little at a time.
- Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about the thickness of a pound coin. Use a round (preferably fluted) cutter to cut circles then use a smaller cutter (stars, hearts, trees, whatever you have), to cut little windows in half of the rounds.
- Transfer to the baking sheets and bake for 8-10min, or until barely coloured. Cool completely.
- Spread the whole cookie rounds with conserve and top with a windowed cookie. Sift with icing sugar and store in an airtight jar.
Cook’s tips:
- Vary the flavour and colour of conserve for a stunning festive look. Use apricot, raspberry and blueberry for example.
Spiced Sugar Snowflakes
These spice-laden biscuits are full of festive flavours and undeniably moreish. Stamp out the dough into a variety of shapes and sizes; whatever cutters you may have.
Preparation time: 20min
Cooking time: 10-12min
Makes: about 20 cookies
Ingredients:
- 50g unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
- 50g demerara sugar
- 75g golden syrup
- 25g Bonne Maman Salted Caramel
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1tsp mixed spice
- 1 large egg yolk
- 250g plain flour
To Make:
- Heat the oven to 170C, 150C fan oven, gas mark 3. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
- Put the butter into a medium bowl. In a small pan, gently heat together the sugar, syrup, caramel, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice until smooth. Bring to the boil and pour over the butter. Stir until all the butter has melted.
- Beat in egg yolk and flour and knead lightly on a floured surface to a smooth dough. Roll out dough to about the thickness of a pound coin. Use a variety of cutters to cut out the cookies; we used large and small snowflake shapes.
- Transfer to the baking sheets. Bake for 10-12min, cool completely, then store your tiny festive treats in airtight jars.
Cook’s tips:
- The thinner the dough, the crisper the biscuits will be. If possible, roll out dough between sheets of non-stick baking parchment.
- For tree decorations, make a hole in the top with a skewer when the biscuits are hot out the oven. Thread with fine ribbon when cold.
- The biscuits will store for 2-3 weeks in an airtight container or for 1-2 months in the freezer.
