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53 beautiful biscuit and cookie recipes

Perfect for morning tea or the school cake stall.
dark choc chip biscuits

There is no smell more welcoming than that of freshly baked biscuits or cookies. Whether it’s for morning tea with a cuppa or for the school cake stall, you’ll find something suitable in this collection of biscuit recipes.

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Plus, keep scrolling for our Test Kitchen techniques for these biscuit recipes. You’ll find tips from creaming the butter and sugar to troubleshooting biscuit baking problems.

53 beautiful biscuit and cookie recipes

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Smartie biscuits
Quick & Easy
September 29, 2012

Smartie biscuits

These biscuits will still be soft when they’re cooked, but will harden on cooling. Note
By Women's Weekly Food
Afghan biscuits
Quick & Easy
June 30, 2011

Afghan biscuits

These chocolatey Afghan biscuits are absolutely delicious enjoyed with a mug of coffee for afternoon tea. They keep well covered in the fridge for up to a week, but we don’t think they’ll last that long.
By Women's Weekly Food
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Test Kitchen techniques for biscuit recipes

How to cream the butter and sugar for biscuit recipes

Creaming the butter and sugar

Creaming is the term used when butter and sugar are beaten until ‘pale and fluffy’. You can use an electric stand mixer, hand-held mixer or a wooden spoon for the job, however the latter is hard work.

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The mixture is ready when the butter has become paler in colour. The sugar does not need to be dissolved. In our recipes we also use the term ‘soft and creamy’. For this result the mixture is not beaten as much, should cling to the side of the bowl (soft) and barely change in colour.

Shaping biscuits on a tray

Shaping biscuits

Using floured hands, roll 2 teaspoons of biscuit mixture into balls. The easiest way to do this is to scoop the mixture into a tablespoon measure. Then, push the mixture out and cut in half so that each half of the dough equals 2 teaspoons. Place the balls 2.5cm (1in) apart on baking-paper-lined oven trays. Flatten each ball slightly with a lightly floured fork into 4cm (1½in) rounds.

If the edges of the biscuits crack, smooth the cracks with your fingers by pressing the dough back together.

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Biscuit troubleshooting

Unfortunately, biscuits and cookies don’t always emerge from the oven looking exactly like the photographs. Here’s our Test Kitchen troubleshooting guide to get you and your baking back on track.

Biscuits spread on tray

The mixture couldbe too soft due to over-beating the butter and sugar mixture, or the ingredients were measured incorrectly, the wrong flour (such as self-raising when the recipe calls for plain flour) was used or the oven was not hot enough.

Biscuits too hard

The ingredients may have been measured incorrectly, the biscuits baked too long or at too high a temperature or the wrong type of oven trays used.

Biscuits too soft

They may not have been baked long enough, or they may have been stacked on top of each other during cooling. Most biscuits need air circulating around them to crisp. They generally need to rest on the trays for a few minutes to harden slightly before being transferred to wire racks to cool completely.

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Biscuits too brown underneath

Trays may have been over-greased, or the tray is in the incorrect position in the oven.

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