Iced Sugar Cookies

I thought I’d have a spot of light baking in the kitchen with these cookies to brighten up an autumn day! The texture has a nice crunch and I think they may even suit a children’s party theme too. Have fun experimenting with shapes, colours and sprinkles! If you haven’t quite enough icing depending on how thick you make it, they also taste fantastic as a plain cookie :)

Iced Sugar Cookies

Ingredients
200g (7 oz) self-raising flour
50g (1 oz) cornflour
110g (4 oz) butter
110g (4 oz) caster sugar
1 egg
Few drops of vanilla extract
1 tbsp milk or enough to bring the dough together
For The Icing
150g (5 oz) icing sugar, sieved
Few drops of lemon juice
A little water
Edible food colours of choice
Sugar sprinkles for decoration
Round cookie cutter

Method

You will need 2 - 3 large baking trays covered with non-stick baking paper. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.

In a large mixing bowl sieve the flour, salt and cornflour. Add the butter and rub in with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar. Beat the egg and vanilla extract together in a small jug and add to the mixture. Add the milk form the dough together with your hands into a ball; it will be a soft dough.

Chill the dough for about 30 minutes to 1 hour in the fridge wrapped in cling film. Lightly dust a work surface with a little flour and roll the dough out to a thickness of 5cm (2 in). Stamp out the cookies and then lay them on the prepared baking trays, (Re-roll the dough and stamp out more cookies until all the dough is used).

Place in the preheated oven for 10 – 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Leave to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

For The Icing. Sieve the icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice and a little water then beat until smooth. The consistency should be runny but stiff enough to coat the cookies. Dived the icing into three bowls and add the food colours of choice and coat the cooled cookies with icing and sprinkle over the sugar sprinkles. Leave the icing to set for a little while before eating or storing away.

Makes 20 – 30 cookies (depending on the size of cookie cutter you use).