Biscuit Pops

Great for children's parties...actually all manner of occasions!  I like to use the outlining and flooding method for icing them but you can certainly use ready-to-roll icing cut with the same shape cutter if you want to save time.  For the outlining I use writing icing that you can buy in little tubes, far easier than having lots of different piping bags with various colours and consistencies!
I buy my lolly sticks from a baking supplies website but you can also get them in the larger supermarkets.

Ingredients

125g Soft Butter

125g Caster Sugar

1 Large Egg

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

250g Plain Flour

For the Icing

Writing icing tubes

Egg white

Icing Sugar

Food Colouring

Chocolate

Golden Syrup

Any decorations like glitter, flowers etc

• To make the dough, cream the butter, vanilla extract and sugar together in a bowl then beat in the egg.  Add the flour and stir until you have a firm dough.  Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 15-30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 175C (fan) and line a couple of baking trays with greaseproof/baking paper.
• Take the dough out of the fridge and cut it in half, it's easier to roll out in two batches.
• There are several recommended methods for rolling out biscuit dough, some say roll between cling film or greaseproof paper.  I just roll it out on a lightly floured surface like I do pastry, it works well as long as the dough is cool and you keep it moving between rolls.
• When the dough is rolled to approximately the thickness of a pound coin cut out shapes using a cutter that you have dibbled in flour, this prevents the dough from sticking to the cutter.  Put the cut out shapes onto the lined baking trays allowing room for the lolly sticks.  Place a lolly stick onto each dough shape, press in gently then, using the tips of your fingers, squeeze the dough around the stick slightly.  Then chill these for 10-15 minutes (this is not essential but does slightly reduce spreading while baking).
• Bake in the preheated oven for 8-9 minutes until slightly starting to brown at the edges.  
• Remove from the oven and set aside for 10-15 minutes to cool and firm up before attempting to transfer the biscuit pops to a plate.  Let them cool completely then turn them over so the flat side is facing up, ready to be decorated.
• To outline the design you need a thick icing, this is why the writing icings are so handy.  When piping the outline remember that you are creating a framework to fill with icing so you can't have any gaps.
• To make royal icing simply mix enough icing sugar into egg white to make a smooth icing then add any food colouring you like.  This can then be spooned or piped on your biscuits and gently spread to fill the outline.  Melted chocolate also works well (stir in a gloop of syrup to soften it and add shine), it doesn't set as smoothly as the royal icing so possibly not as good for intricate designs.
• If you want to add glitter or other decorations make sure you put them on when the icing is still wet.  
• To do any further piping on top of the royal icing or chocolate, make sure it is totally dry, the royal icing will take at least 2 hours to set.
• These will last for 3-4 days in an airtight container.