ICED: Tips with baking decorated biscuits

Unbaked biscuit on a stick

Shaped biscuits need to hold their shape while baking and need to bake evenly. I have include tips on working with the cookie dough, cutting out biscuits, inserting sticks, things that I do to make baking cut out cookies easier. You can refer to baking tips with regards to ingredients (room temperature, preheat oven and so on), as well as the shortbread recipe. I will be posting another sugar cookie recipe too, as well as tips on decorating and packaging biscuits. I do hope this is helpful.

1 - Dough needs to be chilled, it makes it easier to work with and biscuits will hold their shape better. Wrap flattened disc of dough in plastic wrap and pop in the fridge)

2 - I roll my dough onto lightly floured baking paper, I find that it is easier to lift biscuits. (can place hand under baking paper and biscuit and use other hand to lift biscuit off - not sure if this makes sense)
3 - Use spacers when rolling dough so that all your biscuits are the same height thus will bake evenly.

4 - You can roll the soft dough on baking paper to the desired thickness, then pop this onto the baking tray and cool in the fridge. It is much easier to roll soft dough.

5 - You can use cookies cutters or a template to cut desired shapes. I find that if I laminate my template it is more sturdy to work with. Dip cutters into flour before cutting this ensures the dough wont stick to the cutter.

6 - When inserting sticks into biscuits I (A) place one hand gently onto the surface of the biscuit and then slide the stick into the biscuit about half way up, (B) I then flip the biscuit over (this is when working on baking paper comes in very handy), and if the stick is showing through the back I roll a strip of dough and (C) cover the stick. Flip the biscuit over onto the baking tray (cool in the fridge if it is soft). I have included photos as a visual aid.

7 - Bake similar size biscuits together, and adjust the baking time (i.e. shorten the time for smaller biscuits).

8- Leave biscuits on tray to cool down a bit before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. The biscuits are a little soft straight out of the oven, leaving them on the baking tray for a few minutes allows them to set up, thus less likely to break or change shape.

9 - Store cooled biscuits in an airtight container, or freeze them.