Vanilla Christmas Cookies

Step 1-Take a large mixing bowl and pour the egg yolk, 250g of butter, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and the 140g of icing sugar in. Mix together using a wooden spoon until you are happy that it is well combined. Then add in the 375g of plain flour to make the dough. You should mix this until it is rather firm in consistency. Once you are happy with the mixture, shape it in to two flat discs and wrap it in clingfilm. Place it in your refrigerator for no more than half an hour. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees celcius/170 degrees celcius for a fan oven/gas mark 5.

Step 2-Take the dough out of your refrigerator and remove the clingfilm. Pour some flour on to your kitchen surface and roll the dough to the thickness of two £1 coins, then cut the dough using a Christmas shaped cookie cutter. Line two baking sheets or baking trays with baking paper, before placing each piece of dough on the sheet. Cut a small hole in the top of each cookie with a skewer or the end of a teaspoon. Place in the centre of your preheated oven and cook for between 10 and 12 minutes.

Step 3-Remove the cookies from the oven when they start to turn a delicious golden brown colour. Place on a plate or wire cooling rack to allow them to cool down properly. Now you can start making the icing by adding a few drops of cold water to the icing sugar and mixing. You want the icing to be quite thick but still a bit runny. Add the food colouring if you wish, but you don’t need to. Spread this on the cookies before decorating further with the edible golden and silver balls.