It is Christmas and I want to share my two favourite Christmas songs with you.  As it happens, both are by local Perth boys.

The first is Six White Boomers by Rolf Harris – hopefully, here is a link to it on YouTube. Do yourself a favour, have a listen.  I have to play Six White Boomers at least 50 times each Christmas.  I think the song was released about 1960 so it has been part of my Christmas nearly all my life.  If you are Australian, I am sure you will know it (but play it, anyway).  If you are not Australian, have a listen – it will surely put a smile on your face.

My other favourite Christmas song is White Wine in the Sun by Tim Minchin.  This is a much more recent song.  Again, I hope, here is the link to it on YouTube.  There is not much Tim Minchin says with which I don’t agree.  His song is another Australian bottler.  If you like it, check out Storm by Tim Minchin.  I just love it!!!

Now, back to the job at hand, baking for Christmas.

If there is anyone out there who hasn’t used enough butter this week, this is the recipe for you.

Hold onto your hats, take your cholesterol tablets and alert your arteries.

This is another of my mum’s recipes, though mum’s biscuits were never fancy like this.  She merely rolled hers into a ball the size of a walnut and flattened them slightly with a fork before baking.  I have these cute biscuit cutters I bought earlier in the year from Kitchen Warehouse so I decided to make mine a bit more fancy.

Biscuits:

• 250g butter (preferably unsalted)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• ½ cup icing sugar
• ½ cup cornflour, sifted
• 1½ cups plain flour, sifted

Cream filling:

• 80g butter (room temperature)
• 1 tsp lemon rind
• ⅔ cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 160˚C.
2. Combine cornflour and plain flour in a bowl.
3. Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the combined flours.
5. Stir until well combined.
   My dough was extremely short.  I even rang my sister to make certain I had the correct quantity of butter.  She assured me I did, though I must admit, I added a wee bit more flour (about ⅛ of a cup) just so I could work the dough.
6. Roll the dough into balls about the size of a walnut.
7. Place on baking tray lined with baking paper and press down with a fork to flatten slightly.
   Alternatively, cut the dough with a biscuit or scone cutter.  The dough is extremely short so you will not be able to roll it.  We took a piece of dough, flattened it and then cut it. (We used copious quantities of rice flour to stop the dough sticking).  Another tip is to keep the dough in the fridge whilst you are shaping the biscuits.  If it gets too warm, it is extremely difficult to handle.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the biscuits just start to colour.  Do not brown.
9. Beat all the cream filling ingredients together until very light and fluffy.
10. When the biscuits are cold, spread the filling onto half of the biscuits and then top with remaining biscuits.