Rudolph biscuits

You start with a gingerbread man, turn him upside down and then you have Rudolph. It is simple and brilliant – the kids will go crazy for these!

You don't have to spend big to make a big, festive impact. Credit: Tara Fisher

• makes

  40

• prep

  1:15 hour

• cook

  20 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 1 quantity dark gingerbread dough, to decorate
• 3 quantities royal icing
• red and black food colouring paste
• 60 g cocoa powder
• edible gold lustre powder

Setting time 5 hours

You will need a 9 cm gingerbread man cutter

Instructions

Heat the oven to 160°C. Line two large baking trays with silicone baking sheets or greaseproof paper.

Cut a large piece of greaseproof paper and roll out the gingerbread on top of it to 5 mm. Using a gingerbread man cutter, cut out pieces of dough and use a palette knife to transfer them to the lined baking trays.

Place in the freezer for 5 minutes until hard. Bake in the oven in batches for 10 minutes until golden brown at the edges. Leave to cool for 5 minutes then carefully transfer with a palette knife to wire racks to cool completely.

Add a little water to the royal icing until you reach soft peak consistency. Get three small bowls and spoon 2 tablespoons of icing into each. Add red colouring to one, black to another and leave one white. Cover each with a damp cloth and then cover with plastic wrap.

Add the cocoa powder to your remaining bowl of icing with a little water to bring it back to soft peak consistency and spoon into a piping bag fitted with a fine nozzle. Pipe outlines of Rudolph’s head and antlers. Add a little extra water to the remaining brown icing to make flood icing – a thick but runny consistency. Spoon or pipe into the centres of the biscuits to fill the centres with icing. Leave to set for 4 hours or overnight.

For the red noses, repeat the process with the red icing, piping outlines, then filling with the flood icing. Use the white icing to pipe eyes. Leave to set for 15 minutes then pipe little black pupils and mouths with the black icing. Very carefully, using a paintbrush, dab the gold lustre powder and brush gently over the antlers. Leave to set completely for 1 hour.

Recipe from Gingerbread Wonderland (Kyle Books, $19.99), by Mima Sinclair, with photography by Tara Fisher. 

View our Readable feasts review and more recipes from the book here.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.