Almond Sugar Cookies

It has become somewhat of a tradition in our family to bake and decorate cookies at Christmas. I for one have no complaints about it. I recently have become OBSESSED with cookies,cookie decoration,piping, flooding and working with royal icing in general. I'm still only learning and am nowhere near any of the fantastic cookies you see about but I am determined to get there.

This year I decided to make a few changes to our usual sugar cookies. As you probably know I'm a huuuge fan of ground almonds so I decided on an almondy sugar cookie. These are definitely my go to sugar cookies from now on. I had to restrain myself (and my father) from eating just the dough.

This year we did some cute simple 'gingerbread men'. They were for my two year old nephew,who in the end spent more time playing with them than actually decorating them :)

Recipe for Almond Sugar Cookies

 

Ingredients

• 200g butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 egg
• 50g ground almonds
• 300g plain flour

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add your egg and beat until well combined. Add your vanilla and almond extracts.
2. Sift in your flour and ground almonds into your mixture. Ground almonds tend not to be very fine, just be sure there is no lumps. Fold into mixture until dough comes together.
3. Place dough on cling film and press into flat round shape. Chill for at least 30 mins. I chill mine until it is quite solid. Pre-heat oven to 170°C. Then roll and cut into desired shape. Bake for 8-10 mins. Leave cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet before removing to cooling rack. And decorate!

Honestly couldn't be simpler. Hope everyone is nearly set for the big day. I am currently constructing my first gingerbread house so everyone please cross your fingers for me it doesn't crumble and fall apart. Lol!

Shirley x