With a lot more time on our hands this Christmas, and for some not being able to visit loved ones, I thought what would be the best way to express some festive spirit? I was reminded of the charming American tradition of Christmas cookies. I know a lot of countries have similar traditions (shout out to Germany and their delicious spiced Lebkuchen) but when I think of Christmas cookies I immediately think of American sugar cookies. Whether these cookies be elaborately iced and decorated, or simple and rustic, they’re delicious and I’ll happily eat all of them! 

I’ve been working on a catch all cookie recipe that is bound to please. This recipe makes a dough that is super easy to work with; you can shape it, cut elaborate shapes out of it, flavour it and colour it any way you wish! It’s very forgiving! As this is a basic dough I have listed a few ways you can jazz it up, whether you are a beginner baker or a icing pro this recipe is for you! 

Ingredients 

480 g plain flour, sifted  

40 g corn starch / flour (in the UK we call it corn flour)

1/2 tsp salt 

225 g unsalted butter

200 g caster sugar  

2 eggs  

1-2 tsp vanilla extract (or any other flavour extract you wish)

To decorate - 

Granulated sugar to sprinkle - optional

For decorating/flavouring ideas see tips below. 

Method 

1 -

Preheat your oven to 150 deg C. Prepare a large flat baking sheet with a silicone matt or non-stick baking paper.

2 -

Sift the flour, corn starch and salt together in a bowl.

3 -

In a separate bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), cream the butter and sugar together using either a stand mixer or hand mixer until pale and fluffy. To this, add the vanilla extract and eggs one at a time whilst the mixer is on a low speed. Be sure that you scrape down sides of the bowl to ensure everything is incorporated.

4 -

Pour in the dry ingredients and mix until everything is well incorporated.

5 -

Turn the dough out onto some plastic wrap, flatten it together into a rough disk, wrap it tightly with the plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for a minimum of 1 hour. You can make this ahead and keep it in the fridge for up to 2 days. At this stage, the dough should feel like playdoh soft (i.e. malleable but not overly sticky).

6 -

Once the dough has chilled and you are ready to bake, place the dough on a sheet of baking parchment lightly sprinkled with flour and roll out carefully with a rolling pin. You can use a little flour to prevent sticking. Ensure you move the dough around to stop it from sticking. Roll out to 1/2 cm thick (3/4 inch)

7 -

Using your desired cookie cutter shape, cut out your cookies and transfer them to a baking sheet lined with a silicone matt or non-stick baking paper. You can re-roll your scraps to cut out any remaining cookies.

Lightly sprinkle the tops of the cookies with your sugar - you can use cinnamon sugar too - see tips on decorating below.

8 -

Bake your cookies on the middle shelf of your oven for 15-20 mins, until firm and very lightly golden. You are not looking for colour, just for them to firm up and set. They should move off the baking sheet easily when ready.

Once baked, transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in an air tight container for up to 1 week.

Decorating tips

• For a chocolate dough, you can substitute 50 g of flour for a good quality cocoa powder. If the dough seems dry (cocoa powder can do that), add milk 1 tbs at a time to moisten the dough to the consistency you want.

• A good topping for these cookies is cinnamon sugar. For this, you can simply mix 1 tsp of ground cinnamon with a couple tbs of granulated sugar. This is to taste so adjust it to your liking.

• You can split the dough in half and flavour one half with chocolate. To do this, remove one half, wrap and chill as normal, add 1-2 tbs of cocoa powder with 2-4 tbs of boiling water and mix to a thick paste. Mix this with the remaining dough until fully combined. Once mixed, add 1-2 tbs of flour to bring the dough to the same consistency as the plain dough. Again, the dough should be soft but not sticky.

• Once you have your two doughs, you can do some really fun things! One of my favourite things to do is to marble them. Divide your doughs into 4 roughly equal balls each (8 in total) and then layer together, alternating the colours. Once you have done this, press together the dough and then tear in half, rotate and re-join them together to further randomise the mix. Roll out and cut your cookies. With this technique, the more you re-roll out the scraps, the more the colours will blend and look less like marble. Try to cut as many in the first roll out to get the most of it.

• You can also create spirals. To do this, roll out the plain dough into a rectangle. The exact size doesn’t matter as long as the thickness of the dough is 1/2 cm / 3/4 inch thick. Set this aside and roll out your second flavoured dough to the same size as your first. Once done, gently lay the flavoured dough on top of the plain, pressing gently to ensure there are no air bubbles. Once done, begin to roll the dough up into a tight cylinder, being careful not to squish the colours and ensuring the roll is tight with no gaps. After you have done this, tightly cover in plastic wrap, twist the ends of the wrap tight to keep the dough in a tight round. Chill for 1 hour until fully firm. When ready to bake, remove and slice with a sharp clean knife and bake as per the above instructions.

• You can also ice these cookies with royal icing and decorate as you wish. Simply pipe or dip to your hearts desire!

• One easy way to decorate cookies that looks good and requires very little skill is to press sprinkles into the cookies once cut. Simply apply your sprinkles instead of the sugar before baking, ensuring to gently press them into the cookies. You can even intricately place the sprinkles on the cookie to create patterns as desired! The possibilities are endless!

• Play with flavours; chocolate and vanilla are pretty classic flavours but you can play with extracts and create your own combinations. You can use freeze dried fruit ground into a powder to flavour and colour your dough - this is a nice way to add colour and flavour naturally. You can also add 1/2 - 1 tsp of your favourite spice (ginger, cinnamon, all spice etc) to make these more festive!

In essence, this dough is a great base for you to play with and have fun with. Get creative and impress all of your friends and family with some beautiful and delicious sugar cookies!