What is the best Vanilla Christmas Biscuit Recipe? Dr Oetker VS Odlums

This year, I could not wait to start some Christmas baking and make some cutely decorated Christmas biscuits! But i’ll be honest, I don’t really have a set vanilla Christmas biscuit recipe so I decided to take recipes from two very well known brands here, Dr Oetker and Odlums. Both recipes use different methods and slightly different ingredients so I was very curious to see the difference in the resulting biscuits and to find out what is the best vanilla Christmas biscuit recipe?

Dr Oetker Vanilla Christmas Biscuits

The Dr. Oetker Vanilla Christmas Biscuits recipe contains the ingredients plain flour, caster sugar, butter, vanilla extract and whole eggs. This recipe calls for a food processor but as I don’t currently own one, I did mine by hand and it was just as easy. You start off by rubbing room temperature butter into the flour and sugar until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Next, you make a well in the middle and crack in the eggs and add vanilla extract. Mix until it starts to form a dough. You will tip out your dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until a smooth ball of dough is formed. After this, place your dough onto clingfilm and flatten slightly. Wrap up well and chill in the fridge for an hour.

Working with 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 4mm thickness or the roughly the same thickness of a coin. Use cutters, whatever your choice is (for inspiration check out my post on Christmas Biscuit decoration ideas). Transfer to lined flat baking trays and bake for 10-12 minutes or until nice and golden at 180℃ – 160℃ if fan assisted. Allow to cool totally before decorating.

Odlums Christmas Cookies Recipe

The Odlums Christmas Cookie recipe has very similar ingredients, containing plain flour, butter, golden caster sugar, whole eggs and vanilla essence. The method in this recipe is slightly different from the one in Dr. Oetker’s recipe. In this version, you beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. The eggs are then beaten in one by one followed by the flour. When it starts to form a dough, you tip it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently to form a smooth ball. After this, place your dough onto clingfilm and flatten slightly. Wrap up well and chill in the fridge for an hour.

Exactly like the previous recipe, working with 1/4 of the dough at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 4mm thickness or the roughly the same thickness of a coin. Use cutters, whatever your choice is (for inspiration check out my post on Christmas Biscuit decoration ideas). Arrange cookies on prepared tins/trays and bake in a central oven position for about 12 minutes or until firm and golden brown at 180℃ – 160℃ if fan assisted. Allow to cool totally before decorating.

Which recipe is the winner?

To be perfectly honest, both recipe result in a super buttery, crisp vanilla biscuit that hold it’s shape really well. The Odlums Christmas Cookie recipe is ever so slightly less sweet than the Dr. Oetker Vanilla Christmas Biscuit recipe so it’s down to a matter of personal preference. The Dr. Oetker recipe has a very slight edge in terms of how easy the method is, needing a little less steps than the Odlums recipe. But by no means does this mean the Odlums recipe is difficult either. So who wins? I do! I ended up with two batches of buttery, crisp Christmas biscuits that were super easy to decorate and even easier to eat. #winning

Any tips to make the perfect Christmas biscuit?

–Make sure to use room temperature butter:

Whatever recipe you choose for these rolled biscuits, ensure that your butter is slightly soft and at room temperature. This will help the butter to incorporate into the dough. Lumps of butter in your dough can result in bumpy biscuits that aren’t smooth and might have air pockets or pools of butter.

–Make sure to chill your dough:

This is a super important step if you want biscuits that will hold their shape. The dough has to be chilled after making for this. You can speed up the chilling by dividing the dough into smaller pieces and really flattening them out before wrapping. The thinner the dough is when placed into the fridge the faster it will chill. You can also pop it into the freezer for 10-15 minutes but keep a close eye on it. You can also make this dough up to three days in advance and keep it in your fridge.

–Roll them to the right thickness:

Roll the dough out to around 4mm thick or roughly the same size as a coin. Rolling the dough thinner may cause the biscuits to burn or break apart when handled later. Rolling the dough too thick could result in soft, under cooked biscuits.

–Different times for different shapes and sizes:

Try to bake off the same shapes or sizes on the same baking trays. Different sizes take different baking times and it’s important to be able to control which ones you can take out of the oven and when. Small star shapes will take 2-3 minutes less to cook than large Christmas tree shapes and if they are on separate baking trays you can easily control the baking times.

-Ensure they are totally cold before decorating:

Make sure to leave your biscuits for around an hour before icing. If they are warm in any way the icing is likely to melt and slip off. Not to mention that they can be a little soft while still hot and may break or crumble as you try to move them.