Christmas Cookies

Hey foodies!

Christmas is just around the corner! For me, the Christmas season is all about cookies :o) And of course, homemade ones! There's nothing better than homemade cookies made with lots of love.

I'd like to share a recipe for little cookies filled with Nutella and decorated with fondant and chocolate pens. A wonderful activity for the whole family! :o)

Find all the materials needed to make these Christmas cookies on our website.

For 30-35 cookies, you will need:

Cookie dough

- 150g soft butter

- 100g icing sugar

- 1.5 eggs (approx. 80g)

- 1 pinch of salt

- 1 tsp vanilla flavouring

- 250g plain flour

- 130g ground almonds

Decoration

- Mix & Match cookie cutters

- Nutella or jam for filling the cookies

- White, red and green fondant

- White, yellow, green and red chocolate pens

- Gold nonpareils

Cookie dough

Start by placing 150g of soft butter in the mixer bowl and sift 100g of icing sugar.

Beat the two ingredients together with the K beater until the mixture lightens in colour.

Crack 1.5 eggs into a small bowl and lightly beat them with a fork. Add 80g to the butter/icing sugar mixture.

Then add 1 pinch of salt and 1 tsp of vanilla flavouring.

Mix everything again using the K beater.

Sift 250g of flour and finally add 130g of ground almonds.

Mix everything together with the K beater. Be careful, mix the dough for only a few seconds so that the gluten doesn't develop too much. If you mix the dough for too long, the cookies will puff up during baking and won't be nice and smooth.

Now knead the dough by hand to form a ball.

Divide the dough in two using a dough scraper and place the first portion on a sheet of baking paper.

To roll the dough evenly, I use 3 mm thickness guides.

It's important not to make them thicker, as we will be stacking two on top of each other later.

Place another sheet of baking paper on top of the dough and roll it out with a large rolling pin.

Remove the top sheet of paper and slide the rolled-out dough onto a perforated baking tray.

Place it in the freezer for approximately 10-15 minutes.

Then do the same with the second portion of dough.

For this recipe, I used the Mix & Match cookie cutter kit from Decora.

I think these cookie cutters are amazing! :o) We also have them in Halloween and Easter themes. And even a more classic version in heart and flower shapes.

If you have several Mix & Match cookie cutter kits, you can mix and match them together, which is really great. :o)

Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan-assisted.

Once the dough is sufficiently chilled, you can take it out of the freezer and start cutting out the shapes.

Place the cut-out cookies on a perforated baking tray lined with a perforated mat.

On one tray, I was able to fit 10 cookie bases and 10 tops (with the cut-out shape on them).

Also place the small centre cut-out shapes on the tray. They'll be great for the final decoration! :o)

In total, this gave me 3.5 trays, so 35 pieces.

Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes at 180°C, fan-assisted.

They should not be too golden.

To cool the cookies more quickly, place them on a cooling rack as soon as they come out of the oven.

Decoration

Once the cookies have cooled, you can start decorating them.

Here, I decorated the cookies with chocolate pens and fondant.

To use the pens, the chocolate inside the tube needs to melt. To do this, place them in a jug and pour boiling water over them.

Warning! Make sure the cap of the pen is tightly closed before placing it in the water.

Leave the chocolate to melt in the water. After 2 minutes, the chocolate is melted and ready to use.

For the fondant, I chose colours that evoke the Christmas spirit (white, red and green). If you prefer, you can use marzipan.

To prevent the fondant from sticking to the work surface, dust it with magic powder and use 1.5 mm thickness guides.

Roll out the fondant thinly with a small rolling pin, which is much more practical for making small decorations than a large rolling pin.

Then cut out the fondant with the top cutter (the one with the shape). Make sure to keep the small shapes aside.

Now we're going to attach the fondant to the cookies. To do this, use a chocolate pen (see second photo).

Then place the fondant on the cookie and press gently so that it sticks.

Here's a quick and pretty little idea for you. Take a chocolate pen of your choice, drizzle the chocolate over the cookie in a back-and-forth motion, then sprinkle with gold nonpareils.

Let your creativity run wild. Little dots, hearts or lines — anything goes! :o) You'll find more examples in the photos a little further down. ;-)

For a nice finishing touch, you can take the small cut-outs you set aside earlier (both the cookie ones and the fondant ones) and stick them onto the cookie using a chocolate pen.

Using a small offset spatula, spread Nutella on the cookie. I made sure to apply less Nutella on the edges than in the middle so that it doesn't squeeze out when closing the cookies.

Of course, you can fill your cookies with whatever you like! They'll be delicious with jam too. :o)

And if you're feeling very motivated, we have a chocolate spread recipe on the blog. ;-)

The Christmas cookies are done! :o)

If you'd like to give your cookies as a gift, check out the cookie boxes in our range. :o)

Quick tip: If you don't eat all the cookies within 2 days, I recommend filling them as you go so they don't get too soft, as Nutella and jam add quite a bit of moisture.

Unfilled cookies keep without any problem for 1 to 2 weeks in a metal tin.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and wish you a wonderful festive season!

Jenny

P.S.: All the materials used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.