Iced Vanilla Cookies
a lovely light and crisp biscuit dough that bakes perfectly with no spreading
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- cookie cutter(s) of your choice
- flat baking trays
Ingredients
- 250 g butter
- 250 g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract optional, or see notes for other flavour ideas
- 1 large egg
- 400 g plain flour plus extra for dusting
Instructions
- Make sure your butter is very soft so it can be creamed easily. If it is too hard you can soften it in the microwave - cut into pieces, place in a microwaveable bowl and heat on full power for 30 seconds. Stir well until the butter is smooth and soft, returning to the microwave for a few seconds if it is still too hard.
- Once your butter is soft and can be stirred easily, place it in a mixing bowl along with the caster sugar and vanilla extract. Beat together until the mixture is light and creamy - this can be done by hand with a wooden spoon if your butter is soft enough or you can use a mixer on full speed for a couple of minutes.
- Add the egg and flour and mix gently until the mixture comes together into a soft dough. Place the dough in a plastic bag and pop in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or ideally overnight to chill.
- When you are ready to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 150C. Cut a piece of baking or parchment paper to fit the baking trays neatly and remove the dough from the fridge. Dust your work surface with a little extra flour and roll out the cookie dough to a thickness of roughly 5mm. Use your cutter to cut out shapes and place on the lined baking tray leaving a small gap between them.
- Once you have cut out your shapes, roll your leftover dough pieces together into a ball again and repeat the rolling and cutting as many times as you need to until all the dough is used. Try not to add too much flour as this will make the dough crumbly and hard to work with and your finished cookies will be hard and dry.
- Place your tray of cookies in the oven and bake for approx 30 minutes until pale light golden and firm to touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray.
Notes
Cookie Variations:
Chocolate Chip Cookies - add 200 g chocolate, chopped into chunks along with the eggs and flour.
Double Chocolate Cookies - add 200 g chocolate chunks and 2 teaspoons cocoa powder with the eggs and flour.
Orange or Lemon - omit vanilla extract and replace with the finely grated rind of 2 oranges or lemons (or if you have Boyajian orange or lemon oil you can use 1 teaspoon of this instead of the rind).
Fudge Cookies - replace the caster sugar with light soft brown sugar and add 250 g vanilla fudge, chopped into small pieces along with the eggs and flour.