Orange and cardamom dove biscuits

Preparation

Sieve the plain flour. With a pestle and mortar crush to a fine powder the cardamom pods. Dice the cold butter. Finely zest the oranges.

Method

1. 1 Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4 and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. 2 In a food processor, pulse the flour, cardamom and icing sugar once or twice to combine.
3. 3 Tip in the butter and pulse until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
4. 4 Add the zest, yolk and water, then pulse again until a dough forms.
5. 5 On a lightly floured surface, gently press the dough into a flat disc.
6. 6 Wrap it in clingfilm and chill for 20 minutes, or until firm enough to roll out.
7. 7 Working on half the dough at a time, roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about 3mm thickness.
8. 8 Use the dove cutter to stamp out biscuits, re-rolling the dough as necessary – you should get around 24 in total.
9. 9 Lift them onto the baking sheets with a spatula, leaving about 2cm of space around each one.
10. 10 Using a pencil, poke a hole in the biscuits for the hanging ribbon.
11. 11 Put the baking sheets in the freezer for 10 minutes, to firm up the shapes.
12. 12 Bake for 7-8 minutes until the biscuits are lightly golden around the edges, then remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets.
13. 13 Re-make the hole while they are still warm and soft.
14. 14 Break up the chocolate into a microwaveable bowl, then microwave in 20-second bursts until fully melted.
15. 15 Spoon it into a small disposable piping bag (or small plastic sandwich bag), twist the top closed and snip off a corner.
16. 16 Decorate the biscuits, using our picture as a guide if you like.
17. 17 Thread the holes with raffia or ribbon, and hang from your tree.