Cream the butter and sugar together with a spoon in a bowl or use an electric mixer.

Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add the flour and mix until a smooth dough forms. Divide the dough into three. Wrap the dough portions separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. I used 2 pieces of dough for the trees and 1 piece for the Chocolate Caramel Tarts, but you could just make more trees.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Roll each piece of dough between two pieces of baking paper until 5mm thick. Use three different sized star shapes to cut 4 biscuits of each size. You will need to roll each piece of dough out 2-3 times to get all the biscuits.

Place biscuits on baking trays and cook for 10-15 minutes until golden. I do this in two batches. Cool biscuits on wire racks.

For each tree, place one large star on a flat surface, place a small amount of melted chocolate on the biscuit and top with another large star, slightly off line with the one below. Continue with using the chocolate to stick on progressively smaller biscuits.

Dip Jaffas in melted chocolate and carefully stick ‘baubles’ on the tree branches. Stick on as many as you (or the kids) like. Place icing sugar in a tea strainer and use a teaspoon to dust ‘snow’ onto trees.

Notes:

• While the method is a bit lengthy for this recipe, the biscuits are really quite easy to make and the kids will love constructing the trees.
• Almost as much as they will love eating them! I placed a tree in the middle of the table when we had some friends over and the kids took turns twisting off a couple of layers. Great fun.
• I make these gluten-free using gluten-free plain flour (e.g. Orgran or White Wings).
• This recipe was created by Melissa Hughes for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.