Red, White and Blue Skillet Biscuits

For the biscuits:
Preheat oven to 450ºF. Grease an 8-inch iron skillet with butter and set aside.

In a large bowl add the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cream of tartar (optional, helps to make the biscuit light and fluffy), milk and egg. Stir together. Using a pastry cutter or large sturdy fork, cut in the butter to form the dough. Lightly flour a cutting board and transfer the dough on to the cutting board. Make a “well” in the middle of the dough and add about a quarter of the candy jimmies. Knead the dough while at the same time mixing in the jimmies. Sprinkle more flour on the cutting board and add another quarter of the jimmies to the dough. Continue to knead and mix the remaining candies into the dough, adding more flour to the cutting board as needed.

Roll the dough with a rolling pin so that it’s about 1-1/4 thick. Using a 3-inch round biscuit or cookie cutter, cut the biscuits. You may need to cut just 3 biscuits out of the first batch and roll the remaining dough for the fourth biscuit. For the egg wash, whisk together the egg and water. With a pastry brush, brush the tops of the biscuits with egg wash.

Bake in a preheated oven until the tops of the biscuits turn a light golden color (about 16 minutes). Remove from the oven and let slightly cool (about 5 minutes). The biscuits should still be hot so carefully transfer them to the serving plates.

For the icing:
In a small bowl, add the icing ingredients and whisk together. One at a time, drizzle the icing on top of the biscuits and immediately top with the candy jimmies before the icing sets. Serve while warm.