Christmas Cookies

Updated: Dec 3, 2020

Christmas Cookies (For about 30 cookies-Depends on the dimensions of your cookie cutters)

For the Orange flavored Chistmas cookies

400g of Pastry flour

3g of salt

2g of Vanilla powder (optional)

100g of icing sugar

50g chopped almonds

195g of salted butter

Zest from 1 large orange

15ml of Vanilla essence

15ml of water

For the Chocolate Chistmas cookies

400g of Pastry flour

3g of salt

2g of Vanilla powder (optional)

100g of icing sugar

100g of chocolate chips

195g of salted butter

25g of cacao powder

15ml of Almond essence

20ml of water

For the decoration

Any Christmas cookie cutters of your choice

Sugar pearls/ sprinkles (normally in the Pastry section in Supermarkets or on Ebay)

*Fondant/ Sugar paste of your prefered colors (about 500g)

Food coloring as per your preferences

20g-30g of corn flour for dusting

Note: For the Fondant/ Sugar paste, you can purchase it ready-made like I did at Intermart Ebene (Refer photo step 4 in Chocolate Cookies making-of).

Procedure

For the Orange flavored Christmas cookies

Step 1: In a bowl add your flour, icing sugar, salt, Vanilla powder and Orange zest and using a hand whisk, mix all together. Once well combined, add your salted butter cut into small pieces and with your fingers, mix the flour mixture with the butter until you obtain a uniform pale yellow color of the resulting mixture !

Step 2: Once you have obtained a uniform pale yellow color of your mixture from step 1, add your chopped almonds followed by the Vanilla essence and water. Knead well until you obtain a compact and non sticky dough. Eventually wrap in cling film and allow to rest in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Tip: Depending on the temperature and/or humidity level in your environment, if your final dough obtained from step 2 is a bit sticky, add some more flour (10 g each time). If on the contrary it is dry and grainy, add some water (10 ml each time)...

Step 3: When both cookie doughs (Orange and Chocolate) have been resting (wrapped in cling film) in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes , get them out, unwrap them and flatten each dough to a thickness of about 0.8 cm using your rolling pin. Then take out your favourite Christmas cookie cutters, cut out some shapes accordingly and place them on your baking tray. Eventually bake your cookies in a pre-heated oven at 175 Degrees Celsius for 18-20 minutes or until the base of the cookies start to deepen in color.

Tips: 1. If you are not using non-stick baking tray, please ensure to slightly grease your trays before placing your cut shapes on them. 2. I advise to bake the cookies in different batches (middle section of the oven) if you have more than one baking tray rather than all in one batch.

First batch of cookies ready ! (Orange Flavored cookies)

Second batch of cookies ready ! (Chocolate cookies)

Step 4: Allow your cookies to cool completely and get ready for the fun part ! Prepare your sugar paste (homemade and/or ready-made), sugar pearls, sprikles etc...

Step 5: Using your rolling pin, flatten your sugar paste to a thinkness of about 2mm and using the same cookie cutters you initially cut your cookie dough, cut some shapes accordingly !... Eventually add a small amount of water on your cookie surface (use a small clean paint brush or sponge) and position the cut sugar paste. The water will actually moisten the sugar paste and make the latter sticky and thus stick to the surface. Then just let your creativity explode ... Add sugar pearls and/or sprinkles, chocolates etc...

Tip: Do not forget to use some corn flour if you find your sugar paste a bit sticky ..

Cookies ready ! - Hmmmmmmmmm ...