Christmas Cookie recipe

Good morning, all! Thursday is blog day. As promised, today I'll be sharing a very simple Christmas cookie recipe with you.  I love to bake, although my cookies are the size of breadcrumbs to you! If you've not met me before, my name is Sasha - AKA Rose's Little Helper.  I love to keep in touch with Rose's friends here, and I help her to tell people about the awesome books she has written. I love writing to kids and receiving letters as well, so if you'd like your child to be my pen-pal, just drop me a line via my page on this site.

For now, we hope your Christmas season is in full swing. It's the best time of year and everyone is preparing to spend precious time with friends and family.  Baking cookies is a task on many people's list this time of year, too, and that's why I've chosen to share this recipe with you!
​

What you'll need:

Cookie dough - 
1 - 1 cup of butter 
2 - 3 cups baking flour
3 - 1 cup of castor sugar or icing sugar
4 - 1 teaspoon of baking powder
5 - half a teaspoon of salt
6 - 1 large egg
7 - 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
8 - 1 teaspoon of milk
9 - 1 large mixing bowl
10 - 1 medium-sized bowl
11 - 1 (or 2) greased baking tray
12 - 1 spatula
13 - 1 rolling pin
14 - cookie cutters (although you can shape your own with a knife if you do not have cookie-cutter shapes)

Icing/frosting -
1 - 1 cup of soft butter
2 - 5 cups icing sugar
3 - a quarter cup of whipped cream
4 - food coloring of your choice (just a drop of each color)
5 - half a teaspoon of vanilla essence

What to do:

1 - place your flour, baking powder and salt into your large bowl then blend them together well.
2 - in your medium-sized bowl, blend your butter and sugar together well.
3 - once your butter mix is well-blended, add the vanilla essence, milk and egg.
4 - add your butter mix to your flour mix.
5 - combine the ingredients thoroughly.  Once you have made the dough, shape it into a short and fat sausage then wrap it in plastic-wrap, then place it in your fridge for one hour.
6 - after 55 minutes or so, preheat your oven to 180c or 350f.
7 - after the hour, remove your cooled dough from the fridge. Sprinkle flour over a clean, flat surface area then use your rolling pin to flatten the dough, so that it is ready to cut and shape - it should be roughly 5mm to 7mm in thickness. 
8 - once you've cut the shapes you want from the flattened dough, place your shapes onto your greased baking tray/s then place your shapes on the tray/s into your freezer for 8 to 10 minutes.
9 - by this time your oven should be ready.  Place your cold cookie shapes on your tray/s into your oven, then bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes. You'll know they are ready when they begin to look golden brown along the edges.
10 - once they're baked, remove them from your oven and place the baking tray/s on a cool surface.
11 - prepare your icing sugar/frosting by blending the butter, icing sugar, cream and vanilla essence together well. You should be left with a large bowl of icing/frosting. You can divide this mixture into four or five separate bowls, adding a drop of whichever food coloring you want to use to each bowl separately - you should be left with four or five colors of icing/frosting. 
12 - once your cookies are cold, decorate them with your colored frosting. If you're not sure how to make your own icing bags, you can watch this video.

Well, I do hope you'll have some fun making your own cookies for your friends and family, and don't forget to leave some for Santa and his deer - he'll be working hard this year and could do with a sugar boost! We would certainly love to see your cookie creations once you're done. Please share a picture with us on Rose's Facebook or Twitter pages, or you can send them to me via my subscribe page here. 

As a note, folks, because next Thursday is the day after Christmas day, also called 'Boxing Day', we won't be posting a blog on that day as we'll all be where we belong - with family! But I'll be back again in the new year, of course!

And so, from Rose and myself it's Merry Christmas to everyone around the world - may this time bring you both joy and peace, and may the new year bring you very many happy returns!

Love to all of you,
​Sasha and Rose ~