With Christmas now literally weeks away and various restrictions still up around the country, what’s better than making the best Christmas Cookies you could ever make?
These Christmas Cookies have been a whirlwind of emotions, mostly because we are not professional cookie decorators, and secondly because they have become a family deal and we started fighting too.
They are easy to make – bear in mind I said make, not decorate – and will be quite fun to decorate if you follow some of the quick advice we provide you with.
Kids will love it, but I don’t exclude adults will too – Fred was very much into it by the time she started with her first tree, Cristina was an absolute babe and has pretty much completed all of them. In two days only.
Best Christmas Cookies
Sugar Cookie
This recipe is from Italian blogger Miriam Bonizzi.
Ingredients
- 300g flour
- 150g cold unsalted butter
- 100g icing sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 pinch of salt
Instructions
- Start by chopping the butter in small cubes, then add it to a bowl with the sugar and work it with your hands until you have a creamy paste - you can use a standing mixer too if you want.
- Add the egg and mix in until combined well.
- Add the sifted flour and salt and mix until everything comes together.
- Wrap in cling film after creating a disc and place in the fridge for a couple of hours at least, or overnight.
- When fully rested, roll the dough to the desired thickness and cut in the desired shape, then freeze for 15 minutes.
- Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes, or until golden in colour.
- Cool completely before decorating.
Now, off to decorating you go.
Royal Icing
Quick royal icing recipe with no egg or meringue powder.
Ingredients
- 180g icing sugar
- 30ml warm water
- 10g honey
- 1/8 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix the warm water, honey and vanilla, then add in the icing sugar and mix well.
- You might need to adjust with extra sugar if it's too runny, or a tiny bit more water if too thick.
- Go in slowly with the food colours of your choice and make sure they are as you'd like for them to be - when dry, they should maintain their shade as close as possible.
Decorating these was no joke: first of all, our advice would be to make a list of what you want to make, or else you will be fighting on what’s going to appear on each cookie. No bueno.
After writing down what you want on each shape, make sure you settle on a design – and Pinterest was highly helpful on this.
Organise the various colour groups for each cookie and then save what’s needed for details – each layer of royal icing has to dry properly before you can add to it.
And to end this list, I would also advise on having a lot of patience – like, loads: it’s a very lenghty process and you will eventually be ready to flip them all and tell them to go to hell, but persist, trust me.
Cristina was so proud at the end, and so were Fred and I – all in all a job well done. What do you think of our best Christmas Cookies?
Find more recipes for Christmas here, they are just irresistible!
Thank you for this recipe! I’ve never done Christmas cookies but I think this year ill give them a try, I’ll try this one out 🙂
Thank you – they are easier than they look, but the decorating can be challenging!
Ooh these look delicious! They are decorated beautifully. It sounds like you had fun making them! 🙂 I’ve been craving something sweet lately so these may just be the perfect answer! Helen x
Thank you Helen – they were fun to make indeed! Let us know if you try them xx
I love sugar cookies, but I’ve never made them. I am not much of a baker, more of a cook. And for the past several years I’ve been gluten free due to an intolerance so it’s hard to find good subsitutes for classics like this. They do seem really easy though and I am sorry I didn’t bake more when I was still eating wheat flour.
I believe you could still make them with GF flour as they are very easy to actually make – it’s the decoration part that was the most difficult part!
I absolutely love making cookies at Christmastime! It’s so fun to decorate them with icing too!
Thank you Charity – they were indeed fun to make and something different to do during the lockdown days!
Oh these look just perfect! Love the decorations on them too. Really craving cookies now! x
Thank you Jenny – they were (mostly) fun to make too ? thank you x