Christmas Cookies

Hi there! Perhaps it's a bit late to talk about Christmas, but I could not resist talking about these delicious cookies I have made as Christmas gifts. I was inspired by our foodie blogger Rosie, from Rosie bakes a peace of cake.
They are pretty much simple yet full of flavours. Trust me, if you want to prepare something special for a dear friend, try to decorate a beautiful jar and keep the cookies away from humidity. They will be dry and crunchy for a long time.

Just below you will find the recipe, if you want to prepare yourself. But remember, you can use this recipe and make another decoration. This can become Easter cookies, birthday cookies, etc...Just be creative and change de colours, flavours and ingredients. As for the jars, same advice. Buy different ribbons with differents colours and textures. Try nice stickers and don't forget to keep it something personal, exclusive. The thing about homemade gifts is exactly this feeling of leaving your personal touch. I am sure your friends will appreciate your little effort. Cooking is about sharing emotions, and it does not have a price tag.

CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Ingredients:

150g (5 oz) self-raising flour
25g (1 oz) cocoa powder
100g (4 oz) butter, cut into small cubes
75g (3 oz) soft brown sugar
Few drops of vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
75g (3 oz)  Dark chocolate ( buy the best one you can afford )
75g (3 oz) M&M's chocolate mini buttons, from the baking section in a supermarket, or any chocolate chips (once again, pay attention at the quality )

Using a food processor, chop the dark chocolate into small pieces, remove from processor and put to one side.

Into the same processor, add the flour, cocoa powder, cubes of butter, sugar and vanilla extract. Pulse until you have a fine mixture. Add the chopped dark chocolate and the egg, then pulse until the dough comes together. Remove the dough. wrap in cling film and place in the fridge, for at least an hour to firm up until you are ready to roll it out.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Lightly dust a work surface with a little flour, unwrap your dough and roll out to about 5mm (¼ in) thickness. Cut out rounds with your cookie cutter and place on a baking tray that has been lined with baking parchment. You can use up all the scraps by re-rolling them. Push the mini buttons or chocolate chips into the dough to resemble currants.

Place into the oven and cook for between 10-15 minutes, you want them just browning. Leave to cool for about 5 minutes on the baking tray before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

For The Christmas Decoration:

A bar of white chocolate ( good quality, please..)
A tube of red icing for the berries and red mini M&M's
A tube of green icing to stick the green mini M&M's onto the cookies.
A tube of white icing, just to pretend that it's snow.

Instructions:

Melt the white chocolate and carefully spoon it over the cookies. You want the chocolate on just one side and it should only cover the top half, above the chocolate drops/chips. Place onto a wire rack to harden. As for the icing, you can choose your favorite brand, but in my case I used Silver Spoon tubes of coloured writing icing. I chose the little pens because I didn't need a huge quantity and they are much easier to handle.

To Assemble:

Using a tiny drop of the green and red icing from the tube, stick the mini red and green M&M's onto the white chocolate. After that, you can drop a little white icing just to decorate the M&M's.

ABOUT THE JARS:

It's not big deal finding glass jars in many shops, no worries about that. The most important about them is the seal. They should be airtight sealed, this is the only guarantee of keeping your cookies crunchy and protected against air.

About the decoration, you can do what pleases your taste. In my case I bought beautiful Christmas ribbons and stickers. You can use your imagination and the result will be a lovely packing, full of love and care.