Crafts For Kids at Christmas

Christmas is a lovely time to get Children involved in festive crafts, below are a few ideas for you to try:

Christmas Tree Biscuits

Serves Approx 80 Easy Prep 15 mins + chill 30 mins Cook 12-14 mins

Hang these tasty Ginger and Cinnamon flavoured biscuits from the Christmas tree.

Ingredients

• 450g (1lb) plain flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 4 tsp Ginger Ground

• 2 tsp Cinnamon Ground

• Sea Salt Mill

• 200g (7oz) caster sugar

• 250g (9oz) unsalted butter, diced

• 4 tbs golden syrup

• 1 large egg, beaten

Cook's Notes

These biscuits can be kept in an airtight container for up to 1 week. This recipe makes approx. 75-80 biscuits, which may seem a lot but there will be plenty to hang on the tree, for the children to nibble on, and even more to wrap up in lovely Christmas film and give to friends and family.



Method

STEP 1 - Sift the flour, baking powder, Ginger and Cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Season with a little Sea Salt.

STEP 2 - Add the sugar and butter and rub in with your fingers until the butter is absorbed and the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

STEP 3- Mix the golden syrup and egg together and then stir into the mixture with a wooden spoon. Bring together with your hands and knead very gently to form a smooth, stiff dough. Shape into a ball and cover in clingfilm. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to firm up.

STEP 4- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, 350°F, Gas Mark 4.

STEP 5- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut into quarters, allowing you to work with each quarter at a time. Keep the remaining dough in the refrigerator until you are ready to roll it.

STEP 6- Roll out the dough to a thickness of approx. 3mm and cut into festive shapes.

STEP 7- Place the biscuits onto baking sheets lined with greaseproof paper.

STEP 8- Bake the biscuits for 12-14 minutes until golden brown, remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack.

STEP 9- Using a wooden skewer, make a small hole in each biscuit whilst they are still warm.

STEP 10- Once completely cooled, decorate as desired, tie a ribbon through the hole and hang on the tree.

Salt Dough Christmas Decorations



• 2 cups of plain flour

• 1 cup of table salt

• 1 cup of water



Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl and gradually add the water, mixing to soft dough.

Remove from the bowl, place on a flat surface and knead for 10 minutes (this helps to create a good smooth texture).

Leave the dough stand for approximately twenty minutes before working with it.



Whilst the dough rests cover 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Place dough on floured work surface and roll out flat (approx ½ – 1cms deep) – roughly the depth of a pound coin



Using cookie cutters to cut out shapes.

Make a hole in the shape while the dough is still pliable to allow ribbon for hanging. Don’t make the whole too small or you won’t be able to get the ribbon through. An old chopstick is about the right size

Transfer shapes to the baking trays



Dry the dough in a very cool oven.

Alternatively you can leave the dough to dry naturally in the air. While it might be environmentally friendlier, the drawback with air drying is that it can take up to 48 hours for the decorations to dry, whereas it will only take about 4 hours in the oven. Oven drying – 200F/Gas Mark ¼

You are now ready to decorate your salt dough shapes.

Decorating is really easy, acrylic paints work best as they create a nice smooth finish but you can use any paints you have. A coating of PVA glue once they are dry gives a nice shiny finish if you have used poster paints. You can also add glitter and gems once the paint is dry using hot melt glue gun or PVA.