Paul’s homemade iced gems pair buttery orange shortbread with crisp rosettes of rainbow-coloured royal icing as a playful twist on this nostalgic classic. Bright citrus flavour and vibrant colours make them perfect for parties, afternoon tea, or simply adding a cheerful touch to your weekend cuppa.
Paul Hollywood
Series 17
Makes:
36
Difficulty:
Needs skill
- V
- Ingredients
- Method
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Method
Step 1
For the orange shortbread, preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas 4 and line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper.
Step 2
Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest together in the bowl of a stand mixer until soft and creamy, but not aerated, scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time.
Step 3
Add the flour and salt and mix on low speed for 1 minute until the dough comes together.
Step 4
Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of non-stick baking paper to ¾cm thickness. Place on a baking sheet and chill the dough for 30 minutes.
Step 5
For the royal icing, whisk the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer until frothy, then add the icing sugar a large spoonful at a time, mixing well between each addition.
Step 6
Whisk until the icing is very stiff and stands up in peaks.
Step 7
Divide the icing between 5 small bowls (approx. 85g in each bowl). Add the food colouring sparingly to colour each bowl a different pastel colour, so you end up with one pastel pink, one pastel yellow, one peach, one pastel blue and one lilac icing.
Step 8
Scrape each coloured icing into small piping bags, so you end up with 5 coloured piping bags, then tie the tops of the bags to keep them airtight.
Step 9
Using a 2.5cm round cutter, cut out 36 rounds of dough and place them on the lined baking tray. Bake for 12–15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave on the tray for 5 minutes to firm up, then transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
Step 10
To pipe the iced gems, lay a 15cm wide piece of cling film on the work surface. Snip each piping bag to a 1cm opening. Pipe a long line of one of the colours of icing, lengthways in the centre of the clingfilm. Pipe another colour next to it, then another colour, continuing until you have 5 lines of coloured icings, butting up to each other. (If you wanted to save on piping bags, you could spoon the icing into long lines on the cling film instead). Pick up the clingfilm lengthways and fold and roll over the piped icing lines to form a coloured striped log.
Step 11
Snip off one end of the clingfilm striped log and place in a large piping bag fitted with an open star nozzle. Pipe a rosette on top of each orange shortbread and place them back on the lined baking sheet. Repeat making and piping the coloured striped icing process until you have piped all 36 biscuits.
Step 12
You can let them dry at room temperature or place the tray in the oven to harden the icing in the residual heat. If the oven has cooled down, heat to 50°C/120°F and leave the biscuits for 30 minutes until the icing has set hard.
