A couple of years ago I did this post about baking Christmas Tree Cookies with my little boy – then 2.5 years old. I remember how he loved getting his hands into the dough -and especially the licking-off bit! Even though we won’t hang cookies on the tree this year, it’s such a fun thing to bake with your kids – this is definitely on the agenda for the holidays! I am confident both my boys will love it.
Ouma Ellen’s Cookies
(Adapted from my good old trusty Cook & Enjoy)
8cups flour 1/2 tea spn salt 500g butter 1 1/2 table spn bicarb 1cup jam (I used marmalade – YUM) 2cups sugar (Unless you want to decorate a few trees, it’s better to half the recipe). Preheat the oven to 190° C. Rub the butter into the flour. Mix the bicarb with a bit of the jam to get it going. Add the sugar to the rest of the jam and the bicarb mix, and add it to the flour mixture. Knead until a soft dough forms. Roll out to about 6mm and use a cookie cutter of your choice. Bake for 15mins. Wait till cool before decorating with glaze (icing sugar and a drop of water), piped icing, silver balls or anything else you can think of. String up and hang up!Step 1: Mix the dough as described above.
Step 2: Cut out the cookies using star shaped-cookie cutters.
Step 3: Stop for a snack break!
Step 4: make small holes in the cookies for the ribbons to go through.
Step 5: Bake en let it cool
Step 6: Decorate with ribbon, glaze and icing gel pens.
Step 7: Hang!
PS: don’t hang then too low, or their points may disappear into the mouths of hungry toddlers! 😉
Happy Baking!