HOLIDAY COOKIES

The start of Christmas is finally here! With my tree in place and decorations all around I thought it was the perfect time to start some holiday baking that I could bring into work!

To start - what better, than a vanilla thing cookie with a royal icing glaze (coloured of course)!

When looking for recipes I always turn to my dessert Guru's - Anna Olsen and Donna Hay. I wanted something really simple but with good flavour. I settled on Donna Hay's Vanilla Snap Biscuit - which I later decorated with icing instead of just icing sugar.

Here is the recipe for easy holiday cookies!

Vanilla Snap Biscuits from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2

Ingredients:

- 185gms butter

- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- icing sugar to dust

Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 f
- In a food processor mix the butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth
- Add the flour, egg and egg yolk and process until the mixture forms a soft dough
- Take the dough out the processor and knead slightly bringing it together in ball and wrap it in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface or between 2 sheets of baking paper until about ½ cm / 5mm thick
- Cut into any shape you want using cookie cutters
- Place cookies on a baking sheet that has been lined with baking paper or silicone baking sheets
- Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown
- Remove the biscuits carefully from the baking tray and allow them to cool on a wire cooling rack as they have a tendency to carry over cooking and could turn too brown once removed from the oven (I generally cool all biscuits on a cooling rack).
- When cooled, dust them with some icing sugar or decorate as desired.