Traditional English shortbread-y biscuits flavoured with citrus, iced with a tangy lemon icing and topped with pretty pastel sprinkles. Perfect for Easter!
Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and grease two baking sheets.
Cream the butter and sugar together either by hand with a wooden spoon or with a hand-held whisk until pale and fluffy.
Stir in the eggs, then the flour and citrus zest with the blade of an eating knife until it’s lumpy and all roughly worked in. Then gather the mixture up into a stiff dough with your hands. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least half an hour.
Roll the dough out to a thickness of 4-5mm on a floured surface.
Cut out your biscuits with your chosen cutter, then place them on your baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until the biscuits have browned lightly.
Let the biscuits cool on a wire rack.
In the meantime, make the icing. Add a couple of squeezes of lemon to your icing sugar or until your icing is of the desired consistency.
Drop 1/2-teaspoons-full of icing into the centre of each biscuit and carefully spread out a little. Don’t put too much on as it easily runs over the edge of the biscuit.
Quickly sprinkle over your coloured sprinkles. Leave to set. Store in an airtight container if not eating immediately.
Notes
I kept my biscuits very simple, but if you like, you can experiment by replacing/adding to the citrus zest with 2 ounces/60 grams currants or raisins, ½ a teaspoon of caraway seeds, ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of rosewater or ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg … or a combination of these flavours.My dough came together really easily, but if yours doesn’t, just add a tablespoon or so of milk.You could replace the icing with a little melted chocolate (white, milk or dark!)