Decorative Christmas Cookies

Warning! Only 4 more Mondays until Christmas!

That can only mean it’s time to get the Christmas tree out and put up your decorations in preparation for the festive season.

Why not decorate the tree with some festive cookies this year? It's a great activity to do as a family and it will make your tree look great.

Here’s a recipe we found on Delish and a step by step guide on how to make some festive decorative christmas cookies.

What you need to make 24 festive cookies:

Cookie ingredients:

• 375g plain flour, plus more for surface
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 225g softened butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon milk
  (Recipe can also be found on the Delish website here)

Toppings:

• Different colours of icing
• Sprinkles (lots of them)

Equipment:

• Festive cookie cutters (the more the better)
• Rolling pin
• 2 Large bowls
• 2 Baking trays
• Baking paper

Directions:

Step 1: In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Step 2: In another large bowl, beat the butter and caster sugar until it’s fluffy and pale in colour. Then add the egg, milk, and vanilla extract and beat again until the ingredients are fully mixed together.

Step 3: Gradually add the flour mixture that you made in step 1 to the mixture made in step 2, until it is fully mixed in.

Step 4: Shape the mixture into a disk, wrap it in cling film and place this in the fridge for 1 hour.

Step 5: When the mixture is ready, it’s time for some preparation. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC fan) and line the two baking trays with baking paper and lightly flour a clean work surface.

**Step 6: ** Now you are ready to roll out the dough, do this until it’s about 3 or 4 cm thick and begin cutting out the cookie shapes. Cut a small circle hole at the top of each cookie so that you are able to thread ribbon through later.

Step 7: Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking trays and place them both in the freezer (this will help your shapes hold while baking).

Step 8: While these are in the freezer, it’s time to make the frosting*.

Step 9: When the cookies are ready to be taken out of the freezer, place them in the preheated oven and bake the cookies until the edges are lightly golden, this should take 8 to 10 minutes.

Step 10: Let them cool, then frost and decorate as desired.

Step 11: Let the icing on the cookies set overnight so they are fully set before threading the ribbon through the hole.

*Remember, to make an icing that will harden so that things don’t get messy when you go to hang the cookies on your tree.