Preparation

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  1.
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  Sift the flour into a bowl, mix with the sugar and tip into a food processor. Add the butter, cut into small pieces. Blitz to combine the butter with the flour and sugar until it forms a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
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  2. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees, or 140 degrees fan oven. Lightly grease a large baking tray and line with baking parchment.
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  3. On a lightly floured surface, roll the shortbread out fairly thinly. Use the cutters to cut out the biscuits
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  I made 10 trees and 10 stars from this quantity of dough. Place them on the baking tray, making sure that they are not touching, and bake for about 30 minutes.
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  4. Once baked, leave the biscuits on the baking tray for 5 minutes before lifting carefully onto a rack to cool completely.
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  5. Put a few spoonfuls of icing sugar into a small bowl and mix with a little cold water to make a paste
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  make sure it isn’t too runny. Drop a little onto each christmas tree biscuit and use a knife to spread it almost to the edges. While the icing is still wet, drop on and press down the gold sugar pearls.
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  Put a small drop of icing onto the centre of each star biscuit and press on the chocolate stars.
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  6. Keep in an airtight tin until required.