You can leave the cookies plain but they look so pretty iced with plain white icing and dotted with a few silver balls. It’s quite enjoyable piping snowflakey patterns on each one, you could add names too, maybe make one for Santa and Rudolph.
Make holes in the cookies with a skewer if you plan to hang them from a garland or on your Christmas tree. Or if you’re feeling extra festive, make a double batch of cookies and make them into a tree!
You can bake half a batch at a time, saving some dough in an airtight container for a couple of days in the fridge. They make a lovely gift, all wrapped up with a bow if you are visiting friends and family.
Ingredients
110g Butter
110g Soft brown sugar
8 Tbsp Runny Honey
1 Egg
450g Plain Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Ground Ginger
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Mixed Spice
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
For the icing
150 g Icing Sugar
1 tablespoon Water
Optional silver/coloured balls
Method
1 Pre-heat the oven to 180ªC and lightly grease 4 baking trays with butter (or just bake half a batch at a time)
2 Melt the butter with the soft brown sugar and runny honey in a small pan. When the butter has melted allow the mixture to cool a little
3 Sift the rest of the dry ingredients together into a large bowl and stir
4 Add the egg and mix again
5 Pour the melted butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until the dough comes together
6 Tip the mixture out onto a board and knead it into a ball of dough, add water if it is too dry
7 You can refrigerate some dough at this point if you want to make some of the cookies at a later date
8 Sprinkle the worktop with a little flour and roll out the dough, slightly thicker than a pound coin
9 Cut out shapes using cookie cutters, making holes with a skewer if you plan to hang your cookies, then place them on the greased trays
10 Bake for 7-8 minutes until they are just starting to brown at the edges
11 Allow them to cool on the tray for 2 minutes then lift onto a cooling rack with a spatula
Method for icing
1 Make the icing by stirring the water into the sifted icing sugar to make a thick paste.
2 Use a piping bag fitted with the smallest nozzle to pipe snowflake and star shapes onto the cooled cookies.
The cookies are crisp to start with but when stored in a tin they soften a little. They will keep for a couple of weeks, or you can hang them on your tree for the rest of the festive season!
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