Christmas Cookies

Use this recipe by Sweet Themes to help make the Santa, Sleigh and Kangaroo Reindeer Cookies this Christmas.

This recipe produces a light fluffy not too sweet biscuit. While there are a lot of recipes out their that do not require you to chill the dough, we prefer the chilled method. The chilled method means the cookies hold their shape better and you can use cookie cutters with finer details like a spider. That extra 30 minutes or if you can afford it an hour is worth it when working with cookie cutters with fine details.

Basic Cookie Dough

Ingredients

• 125g Butter
• ½ Cup Caster Sugar 
• 1 Egg 
• 1 ¾ Cups Plain Flour

Method

1. Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla essence (or flavouring) together until light and fluffy. 
2. Add an egg and beat well.
3. Add sifted flour into the creamed mixture. Using hands, press the mixture together to form a soft dough. 
4. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead for 2 minutes or until smooth. 
5. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes (or an hour if time permits). 
6. Turn out onto a lightly floured board. Knead lightly. Roll dough out to 5mm thickness. Cut out shapes using your cookie cutters. 7. Place on a greased oven tray. Bake at 180°C for 10 - 15 minutes or until pale golden. 

ROYAL ICING (USING EGG WHITE POWDER)

• 25g egg white powder (30g in humid areas or days)
• 150ml water
• 1 teaspoon cream tartar
• 1kg pure icing sugar

Optional: 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence or preferred flavouring.  Our preferred brand to use is Lorann Flavouring as they are concentrated and very little needs to be added meaning it does not affect the consistency of the icing.

Method

1. Sift icing sugar.
2. Mix egg white powder with the pure icing sugar.
3. Add liquids and beat on a medium to high speed until stiff peaks form.
4. Store in an airtight container, out of the fridge for 3-4 days.
5. Before use:
    1. Add gel colour to create the colour you require.
    2. Add additional water in small quantities to create the consistency you need to either pipe, paint or flood.

Special Notes:

Black Royal Icing
We suggest you create a brown colour first and then add black. The reason for this is black colouring sometimes has a funny taste and by doing this you avoid using as much black colouring.

Red Royal Icing
We suggest you use a pink gel colour first to create pink and then add red colouring.  The reason for this is red colouring sometimes has a funny taste and by doing this you avoid using as much red colouring.

Recipe courtesy of Sweet Themes