• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Kerry Cooks

Recipes and inspiration from the sweeter side of life

  • Home
  • Rainbow Cake
  • Recipes
    • Rainbow Cake
    • Cookies and Cookie Dough
    • Cakes
    • Bars and Brownies
    • Brunch
    • Cupcakes
    • Nutella
    • No-Bake
    • Seasonal
      • Valentine’s Day
      • Easter
      • Summer
      • Autumn
      • Halloween
      • Christmas
    • Healthy Choices
    • Savoury Recipes
  • Baking 101
    • How to’s
    • Cupcake Academy
    • Baking Essentials
    • Baking cheat sheets
  • On the Side
    • Beauty
    • Reviews
    • Blogging
    • Things I love
  • Get in Touch
    • Work with Kerry
    • Disclosure

Vanilla Almond Christmas Sugar Cookies

December 3, 2012 By Kerry Cooks 4 Comments

P1000462Another week, another festive recipe! Cookies are an integral part of Christmas for me as well as so many other people – when you bite into one of these, you are instantly transported to Christmas eve.

I love handing out these cookies to family and friends in the weeks leading up to Christmas – there’s no better way to spread festive cheer (other than singing loud for all to hear).

Taste wise, these cookies are the perfect balance between crunchy and soft, with the taste of brown sugar and almond, and fluffy royal icing. Recipe adapted from Bake at 350.

  • 230g soft unsalted butter
  • 1 cup golden caster sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 3.5 cups plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder

Cookie time! First, preheat your oven to 180c/gas 4/350f and then lets make our dough. Mix your butter and caster sugar together until combined, light and fluffy, and then add your egg, and vanilla and almond extracts. If you’re using a mixer, add your flour one cup at a time with the motor running on low speed, or if you’re mixing by hand, just beat in one cup of flour at a time before adding the next.

The dough will be crumbly and thick, so at this point stop mixing, and use your hands to smush the dough together into one large ball. Wrap in clingfilm and put into the freezer for 15 minutes (I always want cookies sooner rather than later, you could also put them in the fridge for one hour).

Remove your clingfilm and knead the dough to loosen it up, and cut it in half (its easier to work with half the dough at once). Sprinkle plenty of flour onto your worksurface and rolling pin, and roll the dough out to about a half a centimentre thickness.

Cut out in holly leaves, Christmas trees, stars, angels and whatever other Christmas shapes you desire, and bake on greased baking sheets for 12-15 minutes.

P1000460

To make the icing –

  • 3 tbsp meringue powder (I used dr oetker)
  • 4 cups icing sugar, sieved
  • 3/4 cup hot water

Mix your meringue powder and icing sugar in a mixer, and then add the hot water gradually. Run the mixer on high for 7-8 minutes, until the mixture is billowy, soft and glossy.

Decant into additional bowls so you can add gel colouring for red/green frosting, and then use outline the cookies with the frosting (I use a sandwich bag with the corner snipped off). Once the outlines are set, flood the inside of the cookies with a slightly watered down version of the frosting, using the tip of a toothpick to guide the icing into the corners. Decorate with sprinkles, stars and Christmassy glitter.

P1000464

These cookies taste best made and eaten with friends.

x Kerry

Share the love!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Print

Filed Under: Baking, Cookies and Cookie Dough, Seasonal Tagged With: almond, bake, Baking powder, biscuits, butter, Christmas, cookies, dessert, Dough, flour, food, home baking, Vanilla

Previous Post: « Snapshots from my week
Next Post: What I’m wearing today »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jorie says

    December 3, 2012 at 2:14 pm

    Looks delicious, as usual. I love eating cookie cutter-shaped cookies versus the usual circles on holidays and special occasions.

    Reply
    • kerrycooks says

      December 3, 2012 at 2:41 pm

      Definitely! I just love them!

      Reply
  2. Susannah Bianchi says

    December 3, 2012 at 11:57 am

    And those hits just keep on coming 🙂

    Reply
    • kerrycooks says

      December 3, 2012 at 12:18 pm

      Thanks Susannah! I’m keeping my local sugar dealers in jobs!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Kerry!
Cookie-dough addict, rainbow cake lover, friend to cats, never met a pizza I didn't like. VERY enthusiastic human. Homebody and adventurer. Nice to meet you!

Read more about Kerry...
Kerry Line
Facebook 11,405Fans
follow
Twitter 2,409Followers
follow
Instagram 1,800Followers
follow
Pinterest 7,160Subscribers
subscribe
Post 1,118Posts
edit
Comment 8,255Comments
comment
Kerry Line
Kerry Line

A note about links

Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, which means that if you click on it and go on to buy something, I might earn a few pennies (and it will cost you the same!).
Kerry Line
Kerry Line

Footer

Work with me!

I love telling my audience about products I love! Get in touch -> Read More…

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Kerry Cooks Privacy Policy

See it here!

Get Kerry Cooks posts direct to your inbox!

Enter your email address below to get new posts by email, it's FREE!

Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Foodies100

Copyright © 2021 Kerry Cooks

X
Subject:
Message: