Christmas Cookies

Christmas Cookies

A classic Christmas baking essential, these scrumptious cookies are perfect if you’re looking for a fun way to spend quality time with the little ones. Not only are these incredibly easy to make, but few things will get everyone into the holiday spirit better than decorating their very own festive treats. The list of shapes you can create is virtually endless so, if you want something extra special for your Christmas tree, why not string a ribbon through the biscuits and make decorations out of them?

Ingredients

Biscuits:

1 cup margarine
1½ cups sugar
5 large eggs
6 cups cake flour
3 tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 tsp. Allspice

Topping

¼ cup milk
2 tsp. sugar
1 large egg, whisked

Method

1. Cream sugar and margarine together. Add eggs.
2. Sift cake flour, baking powder, Allspice and salt.
3. Mix the dry ingredients with the egg mixture until a soft dough is formed. Cover with cling wrap, place in fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 200°C.
5. Line baking trays with non-stick cooking spray or margarine.
6. Sprinkle cake flour onto your work surface.
7. Break dough into smaller pieces and roll out with cake roller.
8. Use Christmas-shaped cookie cutters no larger than 5 cm in diameter to create different shapes.
9. Place shapes onto baking trays, leaving spaces in-between.
10. Make the topping by mixing eggs and milk. Use it to paint the dough shapes lightly, then sprinkle sugar over the dough.
11. Bake for 8-10 minutes on the middle tray of your oven, or until cookies are light golden in colour.
12. Allow cookies to cool down.
13. Transfer to a cooling-rack to cool down completely.
14. Store in an airtight container.

Tips and variations:

1. If you want to use the cookies as Christmas tree decorations, use a bamboo skewer to create a hole in the dough shapes before you bake them. Once they’ve cooled completely, simply tie ribbons through the holes. Try this with star, angel and heart shapes.

Recipe supplied by Kanaän Produce of Promise