GBBO 2016 Week 2 - Biscuits - Honey Bee Biscuits

These iced biscuits were inspired by a creation from one of the bakers – honey biscuits, cut into hexagon shapes (to give a honeycomb impression). I chose this because I adore honey, and knew it’d be a much simpler shape to work with than my other iced biscuit (see here). Luckily for me, both worked!

I again drew my own template, this time drawing a hexagon about 6cm in height/width. These biscuits don’t spread out so much, so I found this the perfect size.

Makes 24

Ingredients:

For the biscuits:

• 85g (6 tbsp) softened butter
• 65g (5 tbsp) set honey
• 25g (2 tbsp) caster sugar
• 110g (1 cup) plain flour
• 60g (1/2 cup) corn flour
• Hexagon template

For the icing:

• 200g (2 cups) royal icing sugar
• 35ml (2 & 1/2 tbsp) water (or lemon/lime juice if you’d prefer)
• Gel food colouring – yellow and ivory

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas mark 4. Line the base of a baking tray with baking parchment.

2. Cream the butter, sugar and honey together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

3. Sift in the plain flour and corn flour, and gently bring the mixture together into a firm ball of dough.

4. Wrap in cling film and chill for 20 minutes.

5. Roll the dough out between two sheets of cling film, until it is about 1/2 cm thickness.

6. Cut out hexagons using the template. Chill for 10-20 minutes until firm.

7. Prick the top of the biscuits with a fork, then bake the biscuits for 10-12 minutes, until the corners are lightly brown.

8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

9. Make the icing. Pour the royal icing sugar into a bowl and add 20ml water/juice. Beat until it is smooth – it needs to be pipeable but not too stiff. If it is too stiff, add a little more liquid.

10. Take a few tablespoons of the icing and place into another bowl. Colour it a dark yellow using the yellow and ivory food colourings.

11. Fill a piping bag with the icing, and snip 3mm from the end of the bag. Pipe outlines of icing around the edge of each biscuit.

12. Take a tablespoon of the icing, and colour it yellow. Take one more tablespoon of the icing, and colour it grey/black. Set aside (this will be for the bee later).

13. Add another 5-10ml of liquid to the remainder of the icing, and beat. It needs to be able to run off the back of the spoon (but not be too runny)

14. Colour the icing a light yellow. Using a teaspoon, spread the icing onto the biscuits, until it touches the border. Leave to set for a few minutes.

15. Place the yellow icing into a piping bag and pipe small ovals onto the centre of each biscuit.

16. Place the grey/black icing into another piping bag, and pipe on stripes and the wings of each bee (you can probably do this neater than I managed!).

17. Leave to set.

18. Enjoy!