An edible bunch! Mothers day bouquet biscuits – delicious browned butter and vanilla biscuits with sweet royal icing decoration!
With Mothers Day on the horizon this weekend, I wanted to share a cute and simple recipe that will impress mothers, grandmothers or any mothering figure in your life. Everyone loves a bouquet of flowers right? But you know what people love more?! Biscuits.
And especially homemade biscuits! I know Mothers Day and Fathers Day can be seen as just a commercialised holiday with no real meaning. So for me, spending the time to make a homemade gift is all the more important.
Making browned butter:
So these biscuits are quite a simple but DELICIOUS flavour. Browned butter. Ohhh boy. Honestly, if you’re not browning butter for most of your bakes then what are you doing?!
If you’re wondering what the hell browned butter is. It’s butter that’s melted and cooked a little until all water content has evaporated and the milk solids have begun to toast. You’ll be left with little brown flecks in your butter and a delicious nutty smell and flavour. It doesn’t sound that impressive, but honestly it really packs a punch.
I then added a teaspoon of vanilla to the dough, and that’s it. Browned butter and vanilla are all these biscuits need. Especially as the royal icing adds the perfect amount of sweetness on top.
How to make mothers day bouquet biscuits:
So the idea behind these biscuits was a fresh bouquet of flowers wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. The type you might have picked up from a flower market on the way to see your mum.
I’d seen this amazing ‘crinkle paper’ icing technique on Sweets Cheeks by Renee Instagram that I really wanted to try out, and a bouquet of flowers seemed the perfect way.
I’ve filmed a video below showing the full icing decoration, but effectively you flood the cookie with royal icing and then press scrunched up baking paper onto it until set. It’s so simple, but so clever. There are so many possibilities! I then piped stems, foliage and flowers and ended with a black string tie. You could pipe as many or as little as you want, and really make it personal with the flowers you choose to create.
I have also made a downloadable template for you, to create the biscuit shape. You can download this here.
Royal icing decorating tips:
- If you need to mix food colouring to create a colour (like I did here to create the brown paper colour). Mix it first on a plate, like you were using a paint palette! That way if you make a mistake, you haven’t ruined your batch of icing.
- Add your water a little at a time. You want to keep the consistency fairly thick for the flowers/stems/foliage/string ties so that it doesn’t spread.
- Don’t peel off the brown paper until the icing is completely set. This will take longer than you think, just be patient. You can speed up the process by placing them in the freezer.
I loved making these biscuits. Decorating biscuits with royal icing is really therapeutic and a great afternoon activity! It does take a little time though as you need to leave the icing to set.
So here’s some tips to get ahead:
- The biscuit dough can be made in advance and kept air-tight in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- The baked biscuits can also be kept air-tight for 1 day before decorating.
- Royal icing can also be made in advance and kept air tight in the fridge for 2-3 days. You will need to bring it to room temperature before using, and mix it a few times to bring it back to a piping consistency.
I really hope you enjoy these mothers day bouquet biscuits! They are so tasty, beautiful and the perfect homemade gift.
Mothers Day Bouquet Biscuits
Ingredients
Biscuits
- 170 g unsalted butter
- 100 g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 g plain flour
- 1 pinch of salt
Icing
- 300 g royal icing
- 40 ml water
- food colourings
Instructions
- For the biscuits: Firstly brown the butter, by placing the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Cook until the butter has melted, stirring occasionally. Once the butter has melted it will begin to foam. Once the foaming has settled down, cook for a minute more until you can see brown flecks in the butter. You should be left with approx. 140g of melted butter. Pour this into a heat-proof bowl and leave to cool to a spreadable consistency. You can place into the fridge for 20minutes to speed this up.
- Once the butter is spreadable, using a silicone spatula, cream together with the sugar until well combined. Then add the egg and vanilla, mixing again until combined. Finally, add the flour and salt and mix again until combined.
- Lightly flour your work surface, and roll out the biscuit dough. The dough will be soft, but not sticky. Using the template, cut out the biscuits and place on a baking tray. Once you've cut as many as you can out, re-roll the dough and cut out the remaining biscuits. Place the biscuits in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 175C/155C Fan/Gas Mark 3.
- Once the biscuits are chilled, bake for 19 minutes until golden brown. Then place on a cooling rack and set aside to cool completely.
- For the icing: Mix together the royal icing sugar and water, bit by bit, in a medium bowl. Add just enough water so your icing is stiff and thick. Then place 15g into a small bowl, 60g into another small bowl, and finally 30g each into two further small bowls. You should be left with around 165g in the original medium bowl – then add 5ml water to this, and mix until flood consistency.
- Add brown food colouring to the 165g bowl of icing. Black food colouring to the 15g bowl, green food colouring to the 60g bowl, and pink to one of the 30g bowls. Leave the remaining 30g bowl white. Place each of these coloured icings into separate piping bags and snip off the end of each to create a small hole.
- Using the brown icing, outline the bottom of the biscuit and make outline the top of the 'paper'. Then fill in the outline, and using a toothpick spread the icing evenly. Then carefully place a piece of scrunched baking paper over top and leave to set. This will take around 4 hours at room temperature, or 30 minutes in the freezer. Repeat the process for all biscuits.
- Once the brown icing is set, carefully peel off the baking paper and discard. Then using the green icing pipe stems and foliage at the top of the biscuit. Then using the pink and white icings pipe flowers onto the stems. Finally, using the black icing pipe a lines to depict a bow-tied string on top of the set brown icing. Repeat the process for all biscuits, and leave to set.
