Vanilla rings

Every Danish family has a recipe for these little vanilla wreath cookies. The dough has to be quite cold in order to achieve the ridges on the final product.

MAKES about 30

PREPARATION TIME 40 minutes, plus chilling COOKING TIME about 20 minutes

170g caster sugar, plus 11/2tbsp l 200g butter, plus 2tbsp, at room l temperature, plus extra to grease 275g strong white flour l 100g ground almonds l

1tsp baking powder l

1 medium egg l

A pinch of salt l

Seeds from 1 vanilla pod l

1 Grease and line a few baking sheets with baking parchment. Mix all of the sugar and butter (only briefly until just combined), then add the remaining ingredients and mix until you have an even dough (you can do this in a food processor or by hand). Do not overmix. Your dough needs to be soft enough to push through a piping bag nozzle. It is a hard dough – in Denmark, most people

use a special metal case to push the dough through a medium star nozzle. A fabric piping bag is also good. If you find it really hard but have a good-sized nozzle, you can simply push it through with your thumb.

2 Pipe out the dough 8-10cm lengths, then carefully connect into circles and place on the prepared baking sheets. Make sure the dough is no thicker than your little finger, as they will spread a bit during baking. Put the baking sheets in the fridge if you have space for about 30min before baking.

3 Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6. Put a chilled baking sheet of cookies in the oven and bake for 8-10min, or until the slightest tinge of golden brown appears at the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before eating. Repeat until everything is baked. Transfer to a wire rack; leave to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. For a citrus flavour, add the grated zest of one orange when mixing the dough in step 1.