Categories: December

Ingredients

• 180g molasses sugar
• 6 tbsp runny honey
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp allspice
• seeds from 1 vanilla pod
• 200g butter, diced
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 450g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 350g royal icing sugar
• holly green and Christmas red food colour paste
• edible silver balls

Directions

1. Put the molasses, honey, orange juice, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, vanilla seeds and a pinch of salt into a pan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Take off the heat and stir in the butter. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda and whisk well. Leave to cool until just warm.
2. Sift in the flour and beat well, until it forms a dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for 1-2 hours, until firm.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 5mm thickness. Use a large Christmas tree cutter, bauble cutter and gift cutter to cut out 16-18 cookies. Put the shapes on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper. Using the top of a piping nozzle, punch out a hole in the top of the baubles. Chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200˚C/fan 180˚C/gas 6.

4. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until just firm to the touch. Use a spatula to lift off the tray and cool on a wire rack. Without icing, these cookies will keep, wrapped in cling film, for up to 1 month.
5. In a bowl, mix the royal icing according to packet instructions. It should be stiff enough to pipe an outline. Put one-third of the icing into another bowl, and put a few tablespoons from the first bowl into a third, small bowl. Colour the largest quantity of icing red, the second-largest quantity pale-green, and leave the smallest amount white.
6. Put a little of the red and green icing into 2 piping bags, and cover the bowls with cling film. Use green icing to pipe outlines onto the tree cookies and the bow outlines on the gift cookies. Use red icing to pipe outlines onto the bauble and gift cookies – take care around the bow. Leave to set.
7. Add a little more water to each bowl of icing, so it is less stiff and flows more easily. Using the same colour used for the outlines, flood the cookies until they are fully filled in. Leave the Christmas trees and baubles to set. Before the gift cookies set, put a little thin green icing into a piping bag and pipe on some dots. Leave to set.
8. Put a little white icing into a piping bag. Colour a little white icing pale-green and put it in another piping bag. Pipe on the decorations, affix the edible silver balls in place with any leftover icing and leave to set. Tie ribbon through the holes, and hang on the tree!

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