Christmas Sugar Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

200g salted butter

2 tsp vanilla bean extract

200g caster sugar

1 egg

400g plain flour

Fondant

Corn flour

Gel food coloring

Edible decorations / sprinkles

Edible glue

BISCUITS:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Place butter into a heatproof dish then into the microwave for 20 seconds.

With an electric mixer, cream together the butter, vanilla bean extract and castor sugar until pale and creamy.

Add 1 egg. Best until combined but do not over mix.

Sift in plain flour then mix with electric mixer until combined.

Make the mixture into 3 balls. Cover with cling wrap and chill for 30 mins.

Dust a silicon mat with plain flour. Once chilled, work with each wrapped section one at a time and using a rolling pin, roll out onto a silicon mat.

Use your cutter to cut out your biscuit shapes. Pop them into a flat baking tray that is lined with grease proof paper.

**The key is to keep them cold before baking otherwise they will spread too much.

Put the biscuit tray into the fridge for 15-20 mins the put straight into the oven at 180 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Remove from oven and allow to cool on the tray.

ICING:

Break about 2 inches of fondant off the fondant block. Using disposable rubber gloves, sprinkle corn flour over the fondant and knead until combined. The cornflour will help to dry out the fondant so it won’t be so sticky. Add food gel coloring of your choice. We used green for the trees. You will not need a lot of coloring - with something like this less is always more.

**the gloves will save your hands from the gel!**

Knead together until combined and dust with more cornflour. Dust cornflour over a silicon mat before placing the fondant on top and rolling out with a rolling pin. You don’t want it to be too thin so it will hold its shape. Using your cutter, cut out the fondant shake and pop onto a lined baking tray to set.

Once your cookies are cool take a small, clean paintbrush and apply edible glue to the surface. Then add the fondant cutout and press lightly onto the biscuit. Decorate as you would like and leave for a few hours to set.

These cookies make the sweetest little gifts for work colleagues or school friends and they are so easy to make.

Enjoy!