COOKIES FOR THE TREE

MAKES 30

Use any Christmas cookie shapes you like, or stick to stars.

INGREDIENTS

COOKIES

• 250ml (1 cup) soft butter

• 125ml (½ cup) castor sugar

• 200g condensed milk

• 5ml (1t) vanilla essence

• 625ml (2½ cups) cake flour

• 10ml (2t) baking powder

• pinch of salt

ICING SUGAR

• 680ml (2¾ cups) icing sugar

• 60ml (¼ cup) water

• juice of ½ lemon

METHOD

COOKIES

1 Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the condensed milk and vanilla essence and mix well.

2 Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add the butter mixture and mix well to form a dough.

3 Divide the dough in two and cover with clingwrap. Cool for at least 30 minutes in the fridge until firm.

4 Preheat the oven to 160º Celsius. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

5 Roll the cookie dough out on a flour-sprinkled surface until it is about 4mm thick. Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes. Make a hole in each cookie, so you can thread it with string later. Place the cookies about 3cm apart on the baking tray.

6 Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until light brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a cooling rack. Carefully thread with string.

ICING

Mix all the ingredients for the icing sugar, and decorate the cookies. Let dry before handling. ●