Rainbow Pinwheel Biscuits

So, when I last made spiral biscuits, what I was actually aiming for was something like this.  What a difference the right biscuit dough and good quality food colouring makes!  I recently invested in some more Sugarflair Blossom Tints, having previously purchased the yellow one for making the chicks on my Easter cupcakes.  I was a bit unsure how well the powder would do at colouring dough that was going to be baked in the oven.  But it did not fade!  I was so pleased.

I made these for my friend, Jess.  She was the one that showed me the coloured biscuit idea and said I should make them so since I was seeing her today I wanted to try again and hopefully make a better go of them.  And I did, except for burning a few.  Still getting used to my new oven and this was the first thing to be baked in it.  I put one batch too low down and their bottoms went black.  Oops.

The recipe for the biscuit dough comes from my boyfriend's mum.  This is what she uses for her Easter biscuits and for biscuits for Father Christmas.  It ended up being a good dough, though does start out a bit sticky.  Tastes good too.

Recipe - adapted from a recipe from Mrs McGinlay, and Sounder Studios

Makes about 24

• 225g/8oz self-raising flour
• 115g/4oz butter
• 115g/4oz caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• Food colouring
• Hundreds and Thousands

1. Rub the butter into the flour.
2. Add the sugar and the baking powder.
3. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and add a little at a time until you get the desired consistency.  (I added my whole egg but probably shouldn't have because it was a sticky dough).
4. Divide the dough into equal amounts and put into separate bowls depending on the number of colours you're using.  I had 5 colours so had five bowls with pieces of dough weighing 98g in each.
5. Add a different colour to each bowl and mix into the dough until distributed evenly.  If your dough is still a bit too sticky, add some more flour to it.
6. Prepare 2-3 baking trays with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
7. Break off a small piece of dough from each colour and roll each into a ball.
8. Roll the balls of dough together into a bigger ball to get something that resembles a beach ball.
9. Now roll that out into a long sausage.
10. Curl the dough around itself into a circular spiral, twisting the dough as you wrap to swirl the colours.  This does take a bit of practice so don't worry if you don't get it right straight away.
11. Roll the edges in the Hundreds and Thousands and then place on one of the trays.  Space them a reasonable distance apart because they do expand a little when baking.
12. Repeat steps 7-11 until all the dough is used up.
13. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.
14. Transfer to a cooling rack after baking.