If you're looking for an easy recipe for Christmas Sugar Cookies then you're in the right place. Although they only take a few minutes to prep and bake, the dough does need a couple of hours to rest in the fridge, which is why I don't claim that this is a quick recipe as well.
You will need:
For the cookie dough:
130g dairy-free spread
100g caster sugar
1 egg
260g flour (plus extra flour for the work surface)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
zest from 1 orange
zest from 1 lemon
1/2 tsp lemon flavouring
15g cocoa powder
juice from half of the orange
For the icing
orange juice from the other half of the orange
1 cup icing sugar
How to:
In a large bowl, mix the dairy-free spread with the egg and sugar using a whisk or electric mixer.
Add the vanilla extract, lemon flavouring and the zest from the orange and lemon.
Then add the baking powder and slowly add the flour until it is all incorporated.
Divide the dough in two. Wrap one dough ball in clingfilm and place it in the fridge.
To the remaining half, add the cocoa powder and the juice from half of the orange you zested earlier and mix until you have an even colour. Wrap this dough in clingfilm as well and place it in the fridge next to its other half for at least 2 hours.
Two hours have passed so it's time to get to the fun part. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a few trays with baking parchment
Sprinkle some flour on your working surface, remove one of the dough pieces from the clingfilm and roll it into a disk of about half a centimetre thickness.
Cut the dough using your favourite Christmas cookie cutters, then place the shapes you've cut on the trays you prepared earlier, making sure to leave a few centimetres in between the cookies, as they will expand.
Once you cut as many shapes as you can from the disk, make another dough ball from the off-cuts and roll it, as you did with the initial one, then proceed to cut more cookies.
Do the same for the dough you probably forgot about in the fridge, and bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes, until the edges turn slightly brown.
Leave them on a cooling rack until they're completely cool.
In a bowl, mix the icing sugar with the orange juice, then spread the icing as best as you can on the cooled cookies. If you're not a fan of icing, feel free to skip this step, or if you have a favourite icing, feel free to use that one instead.
If needed, you can make the dough in advance and keep it in the fridge from one day to the next. If lemon isn't your flavour of choice, feel free to replace it with almond, caramel or whatever essence or extract you might have around the house.
With the cookie cutters you can see above, this recipe will make about 30 cookies.
If they don't vanish instantly, they will keep very well in an air-tight container for 3-4 days. After they cool down, and even after a few days, they still are soft in the middle, and just a bit crunchy on the outside.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate and ask in the comments below and I'll be happy to help.
I hope life is treating you well.
Take care.