Christmas Star Biscuits

Seeing as it's only 4 days until Christmas I thought it was high time I share a Christmassy recipe with you all. These biscuits are super easy and the perfect Christmas treat, I've been making them since I was about 6 years old and they only take 45 minutes (all decoration included) tops.

What you'll need:

• 250g plain flour
• 125g butter
• 125g dark soft brown sugar
• 1 beaten egg
• 2 tsps mixed spice
• Tube of white icing 
• 125g icing sugar (roughly) 
• A few drops of water
• Pinch of salt

(Makes 20-30 biscuits)

Set your oven to 190c and grease two baking trays. Mix the butter and sugar together until fluffy then beat in the egg. Sift in the flour, spice and salt and mix until you have firm dough. Easy peasy.

Sprinkle more flour on a worktop and coat a rolling pin. Roll the dough out until about half a centimetre thick and then cut out all your shapes. I've stuck to stars but this would also be perfect for little gingerbread men. Place each shape on a baking tray and then ball the excess dough and repeat.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until light brown and place on a wire rack to cool (this takes literally minutes). When the biscuits are cool it's time to ice! If you are rubbish at icing like me a great way to keep things neat is to trace the outline with a tube of icing like this. Then all you need to do is fill in the empty space with your water icing. Tip the icing sugar into a bowl and add water, just drops at a time. You don't need very much, we want the icing to stay nice and thick. Fill in the biscuits then add any decoration you want and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Bye, bye Germany

I just wanted to share a few snaps with you from my last day in Düsseldorf. We checked out of the hotel at 11am and spent a few hours wandering round the city one last time before going to catch our plane. Bon voyage. 

Sophie and the Chocolate Factory

Sunday we got up early to catch a train to Cologne. Only 20 minutes away (and 30 Euros for a return ticket) it is definitely worth a visit if you have chosen to stay here already - it's beautiful. When you leave the station on the left is the cathedral which is one of the most awe-inspiring places I've ever seen. It's crazy to imagine that somebody built this from the ground up with all the intricacies and details. Just behind it is the Hohenzollernbrücke (the Love Lock Bridge) which gives you great views all the way down the river.

We wandered all the way down the river to my personal highlight of the day, the chocolate museum. Now this is not any chocolate museum, this is a chocolate museum with a Lindt chocolate factory inside. I'm not joking. I was quite literally Willy Wonka. After finding out about all the ingredients (the lighter the chocolate the more cocoa butter and the less cocoa mass there is) you get to watch the entire process, and try a few samples along the way. It wasn't quite as magical as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but I could definitely imagine Augustus Gloop whizzing through the pipes the carry the chocolate across the ceiling.

Watching the hollow figures being made was something. Each one was individually hand-crafted. A precisely defined quantity of chocolate mass is placed in one of the halves, the mould is then closed and placed in a centrifuge (yes that is an actual thing). By continually rotating the mould the chocolate is evenly distributed. After being cooled for about 45 minutes each hollow figure is hand wrapped.

Next up it was yet more wondering around markets. There was a lot more to see in Cologne and really pretty when lit up at night. I finally got my Baileys hot chocolate (okay maybe more than one) and sampled barbecued pork and cheese fondue. I think I've found my spiritual home.