It's Christmas once again and instead of hitting the supermarkets for all of your festive goodies, how about making some of them yourself? Christmas cookies are easy and fun to make, with lots of creativity involved. It's a great activity you can include the kids in on, and the cookies can either be eaten, hung up on the tree as decorations, or left out for Santa!

Making Your Own Christmas Cookies

Sugar cookies are one of the best-loved home-made cookie recipes, that traditionally used to be made only at Christmas. The dough is ideal for being used with cookie cutters, and there are many choices of icing and toppings that you can use to decorate them with.

Preparation Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients:

330 grams (3 cups) plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
192 grams (1 1/2 cups) granulated white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Toppings – Smarties, candy sprinkles, chocolate stars
Icing (ready to roll or designer tubes)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C).
• In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy for about 4 minutes.
• Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and continue stirring.
• Add the flour and blend together until mixture is smooth.
• Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in cling film.
• Refrigerate both halves for one hour or until firm enough to roll.
• Grease two baking trays with butter.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out half of the chilled dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm).
• Lightly flour the cookie cutters and cut the dough into shapes.
• Place the shapes onto the greased baking trays.
• Place the baking trays into the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough.
• If not using icing, sprinkle sugar onto the cookies.
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden.
• Stand the cookies for two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.
• Add icing and sprinkle candy sprinkles, chocolate stars and Smarties before the icing dries.
• Wait for the icing to dry, and then serve or store.

Variations:

• Instead of using store-bought icing, you can make your own, using 2 large egg whites, 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice and 330 grams (3 cups) sifted confectioners' powdered or icing sugar
• Beat the egg whites with the lemon juice.
• Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat until combined and smooth. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as it hardens when exposed to air.
• Cover with cling film when not in use.