NIGELLA’S BUTTER BISCUIT RECIPE

Okay I am posting this only once as you have all asked me about it. Nigella's words exactly

175g soft unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
200g caster sugar
200g icing sugar, sieved
2 large eggs
200g plain flour (plus more if needed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extracts
1 teaspoon baking powder
Biscuit cutters
Food colouring (colour as desire)
2 baking sheets, greased or lined

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or gas mark 4
Makes 50-60 (Using number or shape cutters)

Cream the butter and caster sugar together until pale and moving towards moussiness, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, and mix gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add more flour, but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough. Halve the dough, form into fat discs, wrap each half in clingfilm and the rest in the fridge for at least half an hour (and you can leave it in there for a couple of days if it helps). Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place a disc of dough on it (not taking out the other half until you’ve finished with the first) and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Then roll it out to a thickness of about half a cm. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the biscuits a little apart on the baking sheets.

Bake for 8-12 minutes, by which time they will be lightly golden around the edges. Cool on a rack and continue with the rest of the dough. When they are all fully cooled, you can get on with the icing. Put a couple of tablespoons of just-not-boiling water into a large bowl, add the sieved icing sugar and mix together, adding more water as you need to form a thick paste. Colour as desired: let the artistic spirit with you speak, remembering with gratitude that children have very bad taste!