REINDEER COOKIES

The little ones will love these pretzel antler cookies with peanut chocolate noses to help guide Santa on his way!

320g self-raising flour 30g unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 200g caster sugar 175g butter

3 heaped tbsp golden syrup 36 pretzels 17 sugar-coated chocolate peanuts plus 1 red one for Rudolph

30g white chocolate, broken into pieces 30g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Stir in the sugar. In a saucepan, heat the butter and syrup until the butter has melted. Stir the syrup mixture into the flour and whisk in until the dough comes together.

Divide the dough into 18 pieces and place the mounds on baking sheets, leaving space between them. Press each cookie down to flatten. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and press two pretzels into each cookie for the antlers. Using a clean cloth, press down each cookie. Return to the oven and bake for a further 5-7 minutes.

Remove from the oven and immediately press one chocolate peanut into each cookie for the nose. Leave the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes then, using a spatula, transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Place the white and dark chocolate into two separate heatproof bowls and rest each bowl over a pan of simmering water. Heat until the chocolate has melted.

Leave to cool slightly, then spoon into piping bags. Pipe two small circles of white chocolate onto each cookie for eyes, then pipe a smaller dot of dark chocolate onto the white chocolate for the pupils. Leave to cool completely until the chocolate has set. Store in an airtight container.