This is one of the first recipes that I made with Miss Podi Hands. It is one of the easiest recipes to try with kids, as they can get their podi hands dirty and really have fun with it. Miss Podi Hands now can basically make these herself, with limited supervision.
Ingredients
- 200g Butter
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 4 cups Flour
- 2 tsps Baking powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- A few drops of Almond extract
In a mixer with a paddle whisk, cream the butter till soft and light. Use the best quality butter that you can get your hands on, as the flavour of the butter makes a real difference in these cookies.
Add sugar and mix till well incorporated. Whisk in the egg, vanilla and almond extract. I like these cookies to have just a slight perfume of almond, but you can use more than a few drops for a stronger hit of almond.
Sift in flour and baking powder and mix until a dough forms. Roll out the dough on to a floured surface and cut out shapes.
Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake the cookies in an oven preheated to 180C for 10-12 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Take it out of the oven and let it cool on the tray for 5 minutes. Then, place the cookies on a wire rack to cool completely. They will continue to cook and crisp as they cool.
We usually frost our cookies with royal icing, made with meringue powder, icing sugar and water. However, for these cookies we used white chocolate melted with a spoon of butter to thin it out. We drizzled the cookies with white chocolate and we added a few drops of food colouring and made some pretty marbled cookies topped with sprinkles as well. You can also use melted milk/dark chocolate; dip or drizzle the cookies with chocolate and place it on a baking paper or wire rack to set.
Allow them to set for a couple of hours. Since the days were really hot, we popped them in the fridge to really firm up. These cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days.
This cookie dough freezes really well too. If you have any leftover dough, wrap it well in cling film and store it in a zip lock bag before you freeze it. Allow to defrost completely and knead it on a floured surface before rolling and cutting out the cookies.
