DAY 19
Whether it’s a treat for Santa or yourself on Christmas eve, these Christmas cookies will surely make a worthy addition to any festive season. The nice thing about these biscuits is that they’re made with cupboard basics, so no need to add to your ever-growing Christmas shopping basket! If you want to swap out egg or butter for an alternative or flour for a gluten-free option, it also works great
You will need:
225g unsalted butter, softened
110g white sugar, preferably caster
110g brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
1 large egg
450g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
ROYAL ICING
Icing sugar
- First Preheat the Oven to 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan) and Line 2 rectangular trays with baking paper.
- Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamed, any method is ok (mixer or by hand) whatever you prefer (1 minute on speed 5)
- Add the egg, almond and vanilla extracts and beat until combined
- Add flour, baking powder, and a wee pinch of salt to offset the sweetness
- Start folding the mix until the flour is incorporated, don’t worry it meant to be a bit lumpy.
Now, this is where you can either chill the dough in the fridge for an hour or just crack on with cutting out your shapes either by hand or with cutters.
6. Dust work surface with flour and scrape dough out of the bowl. cut in half so it’s easier to work with and set aside the other half.
7. Roll out to 0.3cm for thinner cookies) or 0.6cm for thicker ones) I usually just eyeball what feels right, sprinkling with flour under and over the doughs you go so it doesn’t stick.
8. Use cutters or a knife to press out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes to the prepared baking sheets from earlier. (Keep dough that doesn’t fit in the oven in the fridge).
- Bake for 10 minutes, swapping trays halfway (Note 2), until the surface is pale/medium gold, and the edges are just beginning to brown.
- Allow cookies to cool on trays (they will harden on the trays).
Now for the icing
Depending on how good you are at decorating depends on how fun you will find this next step. You can take the easy route and dip the surface into melted chocolate or some royal icing as a base. Then wait for them to harden and dot with icing sugar and decorated with edible balls and stars
Keeps in an airtight container for a week. After this, they are still edible and totally delicious, but they do start to dry out a touch and as with all. Cookies are best straight out of the oven or the first few days
Tips
- The number of cookies will depend on cut out size and how thick you roll your dough
- Swapping trays halfway for a more even bake
- Work quick with royal icing, it hardens fast!!
image credit:receipe tin eats
