What's Christmas without cookies? Well, the same could be said of many dishes eaten during this holiday season, but there are only a few mornings throughout the year when breakfast consists of traditional Christmas cookies, plain or decorated. You could even hang them on the tree for an edible decoration that will surely please Santa Claus. If you're among the very few who've never made them, you're reading the right article: here's the recipe!
For these Christmas biscuits you will need a lot of imagination: you could ask your children and grandchildren to participate, taking the necessary precautions in the kitchen, especially when it comes to kids. Oh, and of course you'll need an oven-safe baking pan or liner : we used that one. of our Happy Stone line.
Making the dough is super easy; you just need a few tips. For example, to get the most out of your Christmas cookies, you'll need to cut out the shortcrust pastry when it's cold and slightly firm. Thanks to the chilling process, the shapes will stay sharp even after baking. By the way, after baking, remember to let the cookies cool first and then decorate them with royal icing, which should be thick but not runny. But enough chit-chat, let's get to the preparation.
Difficulty: easy
Preparation time: an hour and something
Cooking time: a dozen minutes
Cost: not high
Ingredients for forty biscuits:
- 330 g of 00 flour
- 165g of butter
- 1 egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 130 g of granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Salt to taste
Preparing Christmas cookies:
- Let's start with the shortcrust pastry: whisk the butter together with the sugar and any flavourings for five minutes.
- Add the eggs, beating them one at a time with the whisk.
- Pour the flour into the mixture and mix with a spatula.
- Place the dough on a work surface and quickly compact it with cold hands or a spatula. If it feels soft, add more flour. If it crumbles, add a little cold water and more flour if necessary.
- Once you're done, cover the dough with cling film and place it in the fridge for about forty minutes.
- Then, roll it out on a floured work surface: the pastry must be cold and must be able to detach from the bottom.
- It's time to cut out the shapes. Arrange them on one of our baking sheets lined with baking paper.
- If you want to use these cookies as decorations on the tree, now is the time to make some holes right at the “head”.
- Before baking, place the pan in the refrigerator for another 15 minutes.
- Now it's time to bake at 180°C for a dozen minutes, even less if the molds you have chosen are very small.
- Now wait for the cookies to cool for about three hours and then they will be ready.
