My December Challenge || Christmas Recipe #1

CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Every year for a couple of years now I make some Christmas cookies in shape of a Christmas and hang some of them on my Christmas Tree.  I got this idea from an old recipe book I got at a book fair at my primary school about 10 years ago and for some reason I only started making these 4 years ago. These are really easy to make so here we go;

INGREDIENTS

225g plain flour
1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
100g butter
100g caster sugar
1tbsp milk
handful (around 10) coloured sweets (I used Fox's Glacier Sweets)


EQUIPMENT

Baking tray
Baking parchment/paper
Plastic bag
Clingfilm
Skewer
Cookie cutter(s)
Ribbon or thread
Rolling Pin
Large Bowl
Wired Rack
Pre-heat the oven 180C / 350F / gas mark 4

1.  Sift the flour and ground mixed spice into a large bowl

2. Cut the butter into small cubes, add it to the flour and using your fingers rub the butter into the flour to make it look like crumbs (like how you make pastry).

3.  Add in the sugar and milk to the bowl and knead the mixture together.  It is a dry dough but if it is too dry add in extra milk.

4.  Put the dough into some cling-film (I used a thin plastic bag) and place into the fridge for about 15 minutes.  When the dough is in the fridge cut out baking paper to the right size of your baking tray.

5. Onto a floured surface, roll out the dough and use the cookie cutter(s).  Place the cut out pieces of dough onto the baking tray cover in baking parchment.

6.  Put the boiled coloured sweets into a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin.

Didn't actually need all of these!

I didn't use the ones that weren't crushed

7.  Carefully cut out a small hole into each cookie and place some of the crush coloured sweet into it.

The colour of the boiled sweets looks better if you cut the hole all the way
through but I didn't take a photo of one!

8.  Use the skewer to pierce a hole at the top of the cookie to thread the ribbon through once it is cooked.

9. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and the sweets have melted.

10. Allow the cookies to cool on a wired rack and once they have cooled down start threading the ribbon or thread through the small hole at the top of each cookie to hang on your Christmas tree.

 These are really simple to make yet taste delicious and the ground mixed spice makes it that bit more Chrsitmassy!

Goergie
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