Hi all, sorry for the long hiatus. Been moving house, flooding, snowed in – I have all the excuses!

Anyway, to herald in the holiday season, here’s a recipe for simple sugar cookies. They keep their shape quite well, although for one batch, I added just a half stick more butter and they didn’t, so mind the butter if you want the shapes to stay. You will need a power mixer for this and cookie cutters for shapes.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of butter (equivalent to one cup), softened (take it out from fridge one hour prior to baking)
• 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder. In lieu, you mix together 1 tsp of cream of tartar powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 tbsp corn flour to make your own baking powder.
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg

Method

1. In a bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda and powder.
2. In your separate mixer bowl, cream sugar and butter until, well, creamed.
3. Break in egg, mix a little more, and then pour in the flour from first bowl slowly. Mix until doughy.
4. On a floured surface, knead and roll dough into golf ball sizes, and flatten with hand. Make sure everything is floured so dough won’t stick. Flour your cutters before applying as well so dough will pop out nicely.
5. Put on ungreased baking sheet and bake for eight to ten minutes, until brown at the sides.

As for the icing, here are the ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar (the white, powdery kind)
• 1 tbsp milk
• A pinch of salt
• Food colouring, if desired

Mix well together. Once combined, separate into batches if intend to colour.

Enjoy!