Lemon Light Bulb Biscuits {With Glacé Icing}
These little light bulb biscuits are so cute and easy to make. The dough freezes really well and can be made in in advance for you to whip out and use when needed. They are great fun to make with kids - let them be creative with the decoration and unleash their artistic side.
If you don’t have a light bulb shaped cookie cutter don’t worry - I used an oval shaped Easter egg cutter and tapered one end a little with my fingers to make the light bulb shape. Make sure the dough is chilled well and that your cut biscuits go into a pre-heated oven to retain their shape.
Just a little note about flavours - I made these lemon flavour biscuits because I was using yellow icing, but you could substitute the lemon zest for 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract if you prefer or even a pinch of cinnamon. You could use salted caramel biscuit dough instead, which is really delicious.
Lemon Light Bulb Biscuits {With Glacé Icing}
Makes: 25-30 biscuits
Hands on time: 30-40 minutes
Cooking time: 8-12 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
For the lemon light bulb biscuits:
85g unsalted butter at room temperature
100g caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon (see notes about flavours)
1 medium eggs, lightly whisked
1/2 tsp baking powder
200g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)
To decorate:
300g icing sugar, sifted
Yellow & black gel food colouring
Juice of 1 lemon
Hot water, just off the boil
Black writing icing, ready made (or make your own)
METHOD:
To make the biscuits:
Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream together until they are pale, light and fluffy. An electric hand whisk is best for this job, but you can use a wooden spoon. Add the lemon zest and egg and whisk again until well combined.
Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture and mix gently until the flour is just incorporated. You could add a tiny bit more flour if you think the dough is too wet, but be careful not to make the dough too dry or your biscuits will be tough.
Wrap the dough (with clingfilm or similar) and chill in the fridge for at least one hour.
When you’re ready to make your biscuits 180 C/160 Fan/Gas mark 4 and line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
Roll out the biscuit dough gently, one portion at a time (leaving the other portions in the fridge) on a lightly floured surface until it’s 5mm thick. Cut out as many light bulb shaped cookies as you can. and arrange on the baking sheets. For super-clean cuts, dip the cutter into flour in between each biscuit. Re-roll scraps and repeat until the dough is used up, being as gentle with the dough as you can. If you don’t have a light bulb cookie cutter you can just use an oval or Easter egg shape cutter and taper one end with your hands to make it into a rough light bulb shape. The icing will bring it to life so don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect.
Bake for 8-12 minutes until the edges are golden - keep a close eye on them because biscuits catch very easily. Allow to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely before decorating.
To decorate the light bulb biscuits:
Put around 3/4 of the icing sugar in a big bowl and the other 1/4 in another smaller bowl. Add the lemon juice to the larger bowl along with enough hot water to make a runny glacé icing. Add a little yellow food gel to colour it a pale but bright yellow. In the smaller bowl use a tiny amount of black food colouring and hot water to make a pale grey coloured glacé icing. It can be hard to tell if the icing is the right consistency, I usually sacrifice one biscuit to test it before icing them all.
Spread the yellow icing over the ‘bulb’ part of the biscuit and the grey icing over the ‘light fitting’ part. Everyone has their own way of doing this - I find it easiest to hold the ‘fitting’ end over the bowl of yellow icing while spooning the yellow over the ‘bulb’ to coat it before scraping the drips on the edge of the bowl. I then put the biscuit on the cooling rack and spoon over the grey icing directly on the ‘fitting’ end of the biscuit when it’s on the rack. Leave all the iced biscuits on the cooling rack until the glacé icing has completely dried.
Use the black writing icing to add the details to your light bulb biscuits - a light fitting, light filament and outline if you like. Leave the writing icing to dry before serving.
