Munchy Monday #21: Rainy day biscuits

This biscuit recipe comes from a book we borrowed once from the library. The books' title was something like "101 rainy day activities" - hence the name of the biscuits. We only make them when it rains and as it has been doing so practically all weekend (and still is) I thought it would be a good moment to post the recipe.
The recipe makes about 20 biscuits so usually I make two batches.

You will need:

300 g plain (all purpose) flour
200 g margarine
100 g sugar
Decorations ad. lib.*

Method:

Mix all three ingredients together to form a pliable dough. Grease an oven tray. Start heating oven to 190 º C. Form little balls, a little smaller than a table tennis ball and place each ball on the oven tray. Gently press dough with your fingers, making sure you keep the round shape, until about 5mm in thickness. Decorate however you fancy and bake for 12 - 15 mins. Remove from tray after 2 or 3 mins. of cooling (they have a tendency to stick on) and place flat on a clean tea towel or cooling rack.

The chocolate ones

When I make these biscuits with children I let them indulge their artistic talents, but this time I kept away from food colourings just to show that the possibilities of decoration are practically endless.

The nutty ones

Here I have used walnut quarters, toasted almond chips, pine nuts and candied orange. The more rectangular shaped ones are made with desiccated coconut, already added to a little of the dough. To distinguish them from the others I press them with a fork instead of using finger tips.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Nuts can cause choking. Children should be under complete supervision both whilst making these biscuits and again when eating them.