Baking With Bryony // Christmas Cookies
Well as you can guess from the title today I am doing a baking blog post, I am so excited because I used to be obsessed with baking and Christmas is the best time for me to get back in to the baking spirit, again. I thought I would share with you a basic Christmas cookie recipe, I decided to make the recipe basic so that you can add flavourings or chocolate chips or whatever else you would prefer. I have taken some inspiration from one of my old baking books and I have tweaked it slightly so that it makes a better Christmas cookie. With out going on too much longer, if you would like to know how to make some cute Christmas cookies just keep reading...
So first things first is all of the equipment that you are going to need...
Step 1: Preheat your oven at 180 Degrees/ 350 Degrees F/ Gas Mark 4. Weight the butter and sugar. Then combine them into the same bowl and cream together using a whisk. Once the mixture is nice and fluffy, crack your egg in to a separate bowl and whisk using a fork. Then add to the butter and sugar and whisk again until it is all nicely combined.
Step 2: Weight out your 225g of plain flour, then sift a little bit at a time into your mixture. Cream all of the ingredients together using a spatula or metal spoon. As you gradually mix the ingredients they should star to form a soft dough. Now for the messy part where you need to use your hands to roll the dough into a ball, wrap it into some cling film or place on some kitchen roll and refrigerate for fifteen minutes to create a firm dough to work with.
Step 3: Remove the dough from the fridge and flour your work surface so that the dough does not stick. I personally like to use a chopping board so that my work surface doesn't become sticky however it doesn't really matter. Using your rolling pin start to roll out your dough to what ever thickness you would like your cookies to be. I rolled my dough out to around 1/2 an inch. Then using your cookie cutters start to cut out your shapes.
Step 4: Now you need to prepare your baking tray, I prefer to use baking paper so that my cookies don't stick to the tray however if you use a little bit of cooking oil without paper they should be just fine. Start placing your cookies on to the tray, once all of your cookies are cut out and ready to be baked, place them in the oven and set a timer for 10-15 minutes, make sure you check them after ten minutes to see if they are nice and golden brown. Once the timer is done remove the cookies and place them on a cool wire rack.
Step 5: Allow the cookies to cool for at least ten minutes. During that time you can prepare your decorations. I decided to pipe some icing sugar, then I added some edible sparkly spray and some festive sprinkles and waffle stickers.
Whoo and the cookies are complete!! I decided to put some on a red festive plate for when friends and family come to visit. I also have some festive Christmas tins that I put some cookies in to give away as small presents, they make really cute treats and I put a little Christmas tag inside which gave it such a nice home made feel. Considering the cookies have such basic ingredients, you have time to quickly make and decorate some in time for Christmas day!!
This is my first baking blog post and I think it has gone pretty well!! If you liked reading through this, let me know and I might do more 'Baking With Bryony's'. I hope that you enjoyed and have a great Christmas!!!
Bryony xx
So first things first is all of the equipment that you are going to need...
You are also going to need four basic ingredients, as well as any extras that you might want to add in. I slightly changed the original recipe by replacing the caster sugar to brown sugar because it is slightly healthier and adds a nice colour to the cookies. However if you would prefer not to use brown sugar that's fine, you can just use normal caster sugar.
Once you have got all of your equipment and ingredients out ready it's time to start baking!!!
Step 1: Preheat your oven at 180 Degrees/ 350 Degrees F/ Gas Mark 4. Weight the butter and sugar. Then combine them into the same bowl and cream together using a whisk. Once the mixture is nice and fluffy, crack your egg in to a separate bowl and whisk using a fork. Then add to the butter and sugar and whisk again until it is all nicely combined.
Step 2: Weight out your 225g of plain flour, then sift a little bit at a time into your mixture. Cream all of the ingredients together using a spatula or metal spoon. As you gradually mix the ingredients they should star to form a soft dough. Now for the messy part where you need to use your hands to roll the dough into a ball, wrap it into some cling film or place on some kitchen roll and refrigerate for fifteen minutes to create a firm dough to work with.
Step 3: Remove the dough from the fridge and flour your work surface so that the dough does not stick. I personally like to use a chopping board so that my work surface doesn't become sticky however it doesn't really matter. Using your rolling pin start to roll out your dough to what ever thickness you would like your cookies to be. I rolled my dough out to around 1/2 an inch. Then using your cookie cutters start to cut out your shapes.
Step 4: Now you need to prepare your baking tray, I prefer to use baking paper so that my cookies don't stick to the tray however if you use a little bit of cooking oil without paper they should be just fine. Start placing your cookies on to the tray, once all of your cookies are cut out and ready to be baked, place them in the oven and set a timer for 10-15 minutes, make sure you check them after ten minutes to see if they are nice and golden brown. Once the timer is done remove the cookies and place them on a cool wire rack.
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| If you were wondering why there are U's I chopped them in half to make candy canes. |
Whoo and the cookies are complete!! I decided to put some on a red festive plate for when friends and family come to visit. I also have some festive Christmas tins that I put some cookies in to give away as small presents, they make really cute treats and I put a little Christmas tag inside which gave it such a nice home made feel. Considering the cookies have such basic ingredients, you have time to quickly make and decorate some in time for Christmas day!!
This is my first baking blog post and I think it has gone pretty well!! If you liked reading through this, let me know and I might do more 'Baking With Bryony's'. I hope that you enjoyed and have a great Christmas!!!
Bryony xx
They look delicious! xx
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