This Christmas was no exception. As well as some German Stollen, iced mince pies and a traditional Christmas Cake I also rustled up these Sugar Cookies and some Chocolate and Cointreau Truffles.
Sugar Cookies (makes around 20)
200 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
280 g caster sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
400 g plain flour
a pinch of salt
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
Royal Icing
1 egg white
½ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
310 g icing sugar, sifted
food colouring, optional
shaped biscuit cutters
4 baking trays, lined with greaseproof paper
1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.
2. Put the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and cream until light and fluffy.
(I always use a handheld electric whisk. So much cheaper than a Kitchenaid and just as good!)
Add the egg and mix well, scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
3. Add the flour, salt and cream of tartar and mix well, but be careful not to over do it. The dough should be light, soft and easy to handle.
4. Now for the fun part...! Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Cut out shapes with your choice of biscuit cutters.
5. Arrange the cookies on the prepared baking trays and bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes. Check them regularly to make sure they are not burning. The cookies should be very light golden on the outer edges and paler in the centre.
6. When you are happy that they are cooked through, remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
7. For the royal icing: Beat the egg white and lemon juice together. Gradually start adding the icing sugar, mixing well after each addition to ensure all sugar is incorporated. Whisk until you get stiff peaks.
8. Stir in a couple of drops of food colouring, if using, and decorate the cookies. I used bronze pearls, white chocolate balls and some edible glitter to create mine!
and voila! Yummy biscuits.
Chocolate and Cointreau Truffles (Makes about 25)
25g unsalted butter
5 tbsp double cream
325g of Dark Chocolate broken in to pieces (I used Bourneville)
2 tbsp Cointreau (Or any other liqueur of your choice!)
1. Line a small tin with baking paper. It needs not to be too large as it can be hard to scoop the mixture out later on. A swiss roll tin is ideal.
2. Place the butter and cream in a small saucepan and bring slowly to the boil making sure to stir constantly. Boil for about a minute and then remove from the heat.
3. Add 275g of the chocolate to the cream and stir until it all melts in. Then add the cointreau. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and chill in the fridge for 2 hours or until the mixture is firm.
4. Use a teaspoon to scoop out balls from the mixture and (this is the messy part!) use your hands to roll them in to nice bite sized truffles! Its a good idea to keep some kitchen roll to hand for this, your hands WILL get covered in chocolate!
Grate the remaining chocolate onto a plate and roll the truffles in it until coated.
DONE!
It's best to keep the truffles in the fridge until serving as they can go a little soft and gooey, still delicious however!
Let me know how you get on...
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