Remember a few weeks ago I wrote up my review of Dexam biscuit cutters and showed you how to use them to make Jammy Dodgers? Well, now I’m taking my focus to Party Rings.
I didn’t realise until recently how popular Party Rings are. I like them, of course – they’re sweet and crunchy and look beautiful – but when I think of my favourite biscuits I never put Party Rings in that list. When I mentioned to my colleagues that I would be making them and bringing them in, though, they were VERY excited, and a quick Twitter chat about them revealed a hitherto unknown passion for them. Party Rings are in. Whodathunkit?
There’s a knack to making Party Rings. It’s a knack that took me a while to figure out, but once you’ve got it it’s a lot of fun.
First you make your biscuits, then you mix up bowls of the most garish icing you can. One should be white. If you’re clever you can buy flavouring to make each colour taste different – I used lemon juice in the yellow, but could have use raspberry flavouring in the pink, blackberry in the purple etc.
Then you dip your biscuits. Immediately afterwards, pipe over thin lines of colour. Do not do what I did which is dip all the biscuits and then pipe on all of them. The icing will set and you won’t get that lovely feathered effect.
Then run a toothpick over the biscuits in straight lines, first one way and then the other. As I said, MAKE SURE that both your base layer and your stripes are wet at this point. Otherwise you end up with something like this.
Like I said, it took me a while to figure this out. They all looked grand when I did, though.
The biscuit cutters I used obviously make this easier, but you can make these with any round biscuit cutter and a way of cutting out a smaller circle in the middle – a Sharpie lid might work, or a very careful knife cut.
If you make these, send me a photo! I’d love to see what you come up with. I’ll add the best ones below.
- 250g soft unsalted butter
- 140g icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 egg yolk
- 375g of plain flour
- 500g icing sugar
- Gel colouring
- Flavourings (optional)
- A piping bag with narrow nozzle
- A toothpick
- Whisk the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the egg yolk and beat together using a wooden spoon
- Sift in the flour and stir into a dough. Use your hands to press together, then wrap in clingfilm and chill for 45 minutes
- Preheat the oven to 200C and line two large baking sheets with baking parchment
- Flour your worksurface and roll your dough to the thickness of a pound coin. Use a 4cm round biscuit cutter to cut out as many rounds as you can, re-rolling the dough if you have to. Then use a smaller cutter, or a knife, to make a hole in the centre of half of the biscuits
- Place the biscuits onto the parchment and bake for 12 minutes until pale and golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool
- Mix up your colours and put them in different bowls. Make sure you have at least one piping bag with a narrow nozzle with a colour in it
- Dip the biscuits in the icing so that one side is entirely covered in colour. Take it out and shake off the excess. Immediately pipe over thin lines of icing in a contrasting colour. Take a toothpick and draw straight stripes over the biscuits so that you cross the coloured lines multiple times, dragging the line colour onto the background colour. Repeat underneath in the opposite direction. Then leave to set
- Repeat with the other biscuits
These are amazing, I can’t believe that you made them yourself!
Maria xxx
They certainly do look great and vibrant and super tip about the wet icing.
These are awesome and the colours are absolutely fabulous – I want to try making these soon! :) x