Page 86 - Sunday Fun Day

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CrAFTY Christmas Cookies
Get your paintbrushes ready, because these delicious cookies are half-cooking, half-craft! And these cookies are not just for Christmas – you can make them any time, in any shape you like! You’ll want to start this project early in the morning, to allow time to chill the dough, paint your cookies . . . and then taste a few!
40 minutes (plus two hours in the fridge)
Makes around 15 cookies
You will need:
350 g sifted flour 1⁄2 teaspoon salt 225 g butter
200 g granulated white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Christmas cookie cutters
In a big bowl, using an electric hand-held mixer, cream the butter until soft, slowly adding the sugar to the butter bit by bit until it’s light and fluffy. Now add the
eggs one at a time to the sugar mixture,
beating until smooth after each egg.
Add the vanilla extract, then slowly and carefully add the flour and salt to the sugar mixture a bit at a time. Mix well.
Cover the dough and refrigerate for two hours. Now go outside and play while you wait!
Preheat your oven to 190°C, 170°C fan, or gas mark 5.
Sprinkle your board or work surface with some flour. Then put some flour on your rolling pin too. Roll out your dough until it’s 3 mm thick. Sprinkle your cookie cutters with plenty of flour – it might start to look like it’s snowing in your kitchen! Now cut out your shapes and lay
them carefully on a baking sheet.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, watching carefully to make sure your cookies don’t turn brown. Cool them completely on a wire rack . . .
then get ready to paint!