I keep a big black book that most years I write out who is coming for Christmas Day and what I am going to cook.  It is quite interesting to look back over the years and in this book I found a piece of paper with this recipe written in my handwriting (must have forgotten about it!), it was tucked away and I have just baked these Christmas Cookies with help from my daughter.

These little beauties are so good I urge you to keep this recipe and hand it down over the years. 

Makes 56 - 60 cookies depending on how thick you make them

You will need 

 Clean Hands

Electric mixer or bowl and whisk (and a strong arm)

Baking tray x 2, greased or lined with recyclable baking paper

Sieve, wooden spoon, rolling pin (or bottle of wine!) and a flipper / fish slice

Star shape cookie-cutter, if none, use a glass top as the round shape looks pretty too.

Wire Cake Rack

Easy Christmas Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups of softened butter

2 cups of sugar 

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 cups of all purpose flour, sifted

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Cinnamon and icing sugar to dust cookies with

Method

Preheat oven to 180’C fan bake

Cream butter and sugar together.

Beat in eggs all at once and add the vanilla, mixing well.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl.

Fold in well with a wooden spoon.

Cover and put in the fridge for an hour or overnight (best result).

Once the dough is cooled remove from the fridge, dust a clean bench top with a little flour.

Take part of the dough out (about ⅓) and roll it out to the same thickness as a thin pizza base.

Use your cookie cutter, (you can use a fork to make a pattern), and place the cut shapes on the prepared tray, not too close together (as they will spread and stick together).

Bake for 6 - 8 minutes. 

Repeat until mixture is all gone, make sure you roll out the excess dough once shapes are cut.

Handy tip: it helps to have 2 trays to make it quicker.

Once out of the oven cool a little on the tray and dust with the cinnamon and icing sugar.

Remove to the wire cake rack with the flipper.

Cool completely and they stack nicely.

A great waste free gift, in a pretty repurposed jar decorated with a christmas ribbon (saved from last year's gift!)

Cookies freeze well and so does the dough for up to 3 months.