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    Silvana Franco’s Easy Christmas tree cookies

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    Silvana Franco’s Easy Christmas tree cookies

    • Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 1 hour chilling
    • Cooking time: 15 minutes

    Makes: 25

    Ingredients

    275g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
    200g Lurpak Slightly Salted Butter, diced
    150g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
    2 medium British Blacktail Free Range Egg Yolks
    2 tsp vanilla extract
    500g coloured ready to roll icing
    Silver balls, glitter strands, pearly 100s and 1000s and edible glitter to decorate Silver thread, for hanging

    Method

    1. Put the flour into a food processor, add the butter and whizz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add 100g of the icing sugar, the egg yolks and vanilla and blend again to make a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hour.

    2. Preheat the oven to 190ºC, gas mark 5. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. Roll out the dough to a 5mm thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes using Christmas tree cookie cutters and space slightly apart on the baking sheets. Re-roll the trimmings and cut out more shapes. 

    3. Using a wooden skewer, make a hole in the top of each. Bake for about 10-12 minutes until pale golden around the edges. Leave for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

    4. Meanwhile, stir together the remaining 50g icing sugar and 2-3 tsp water to make a smooth, brushable icing. Roll out the coloured icing thinly on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar then stamp out tree shapes using the same cutters. 

    5. Brush the cooled cookies with icing and lay the coloured tree shapes on top, lining up the edges. Using a skewer, make a hole at the top of the cookie for hanging. 

    6. Using a small brush, paint lines across the cookies with the icing, and sprinkle with glitter or 100s and 1000s to resemble tinsel. Push in a few silver balls to look like fairy lights. Leave to set. Store in an airtight container or thread with string or ribbon and use to decorate the Christmas tree.

    Please note that you should not eat the biscuits if they are used to decorate the Christmas tree. 

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    Cook’s tip

    If you want to create your own shade of icing to match your tree’s colour scheme, knead together Waitrose Cooks’ Homebaking White Fondant Icing with gel food colouring.

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