This year, I decided to keep it simple and went for a 100% edible Christmas tree decoration with Noel ball biscuits. There were two reasons for this: my little one is starting to sit up and has access to the bottom of the tree. And since she puts everything in her mouth, I wanted to avoid any disasters! The second reason was that Christmas is particularly polluting and I wanted to avoid the profusion of plastic. So I opted for biscuits decorated with royal icing to decorate my tree. And the result exceeded my expectations!
I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do but no experience in this area. I also had some apprehension about the royal icing because my previous attempts hadn't been very successful. So I did some research and here's what I came up with.
Noel ball biscuits: the 2 steps
To make these Christmas balls, you need to bake the cookies first, then the icing. I got inspiration from Lilie Bakery and their cookies with royal icing which caught my eye and I was not disappointed. However, be prepared to spend some time on this recipe as the cooking time, cooling period, and decoration require a bit of commitment!
Which dough for making decorated sandwich cookies?
Lilie uses a sweet dough (which I won't retrace here as you can find it in the article). I followed the same method for making the dough: preparing the dough, chilling it, and then rolling it out. I tested several methods and found that the winning combo is: balling up the dough, chilling it, rolling it out, chilling it flat (to roll), cutting the pieces, and chilling them for 10 minutes before baking. This way, the cookies will keep their shape well.
How to cut perfect Christmas balls?
As I wanted to hang my biscuits on the tree, I needed a hole at the top of each biscuit. Since I don't have a ball cutter (my drawers are full and I didn't want to buy one), I improvised with what was available. I used a round cutter for the body without pressing down at the top. Then, using the flared end of a piping tip, I traced a small circle just above it. Finally, with the smaller end of the piping tip, I flared out the inside of the small circle. The result is very cool with minimal tools!
Baking temperature for cookies to decorate?
To keep these biscuits white after baking, you need to bake them for only 8 minutes at 160°C in a fan oven. Then, make sure they cool down well (at least 2 hours) before applying the icing.
