We love preparing biscuits for the holiday season! Today we got inspired by colours, the result was some fun Christmas cookies, naturally in a gluten free version.

Take some time and play with us to create many different decorations and enjoy this video for more ideas for decorating cookies.

Or even make a beautiful Cookie house to decorate your Christmas table.

Christmas cookies

67g carbohydrates per 100g of cookie without icing

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry

• 250g wholemeal rice flour*
• 250g bread flour mix for bread, brand BiAglut**
• 200g butter
• 150g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 4g baking powder*
• 1 pinch of salt, 1 grated lemon peel

Ingredients for the hard icing

• 150g icing sugar*
• 25g pasteurised egg white
• food colours as needed*

Ingredients for the soft icing

• 140g icing sugar*
• 25g pasteurised egg white
• food colours as needed*

**Ingredients specific for celiacs

*Ingredients whose labels must read “gluten-free” (or, in Italy, present on  Prontuario AIC)

Preparation of Christmas cookies

1. Place the flour, butter, sugar, salt and eggs in a mixing bowl. Mix well, then add baking powder and grated lemon zest. Cover with a piece of cling film and leave to rest for the time needed to prepare the icing, about 10-15 minutes.
2. The icings are almost identical, but their texture changes, as they have different functions: hard icing is used to draw outlines and make decorations, while soft icing is used to fill the inner areas inside the outlines. The given proportions are used to obtain white-coloured icings; starting with the white colour, colours can be added to obtain the various nuances.
3. It is important to remember that if the colours are liquid, a little more icing sugar may have to be added to achieve the same texture of the initial white icings.
4. Take bowls with rounded bottoms, one for each colour you wish to prepare. For the hard white icing, place 25g of pasteurised egg white in a bowl and gradually add 150g of icing sugar, stirring with a spoon so that the mixture is smooth and even. For the soft icing, repeat exactly the same procedure, adding 140g icing sugar.
5. Starting with the white bases, add the necessary colours and sugar to obtain the various nuances, both hard and soft.
   The hard icing will be used with a pastry bag with a tip of about 1mm, while the soft icing will be applied using a teaspoon and the rounded tip of a knife.
6. Cover all frostings with tight clingfilm until they are used.
   Roll out the short pastry with a rolling pin to a thickness of about 5mm, cut the biscuits into the desired shapes, place them on a baking tin covered with parchment paper and bake them in a ventilated oven preheated to 160°C for 10 minutes.
7. When the biscuits have cooled down completely, form the outline with one of the hard icings, white or coloured; cover the surface of the biscuit inside the outline using the soft icing to be spread with the help of a round-pointed knife so that no gaps are left. Let the icing dry for at least 15 minutes before making other decorations with a pastry bag on the soft icing to avoid colour smudging.

8. For each biscuit, you need on average of 5g of icing, so it is important to remember to add 5g of carbohydrates per biscuit in the carbohydrate count.

Store the biscuits in a tin or a sealed cake tin… they will stay delicious for over a week.

Version with gluten of Christmas cookies

Replace the gluten-free BiAglut flour with the same amount of your usual baking flour.