Valentines Day - Butter Cut-out Cookies

My son loves these cookies, and he could eat the whole batch if he was allowed.  He also loves helping me to decorate them.  Cleaning up after isn't so great, sprinkles all over the floor, but its worth it.

I love this recipe, its so simple and quick to make, and there aren't that many ingredients!

Source: How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

Makes anywhere between 40 and 60 biscuits, depending on the size you cut.

175g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

2 baking sheets, greased or lined

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and moving towards moussiness, then beat in the eggs and vanilla.  In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix gently.

Lay two large pieces of clingfilm on the counter and divide the dough equally between each.  Press down lightly to form discs then wrap up tightly and refridgerate for at least one hour.  (You can freeze one of the discs of dough if you don’t want to bake a large amount of cookies. Defrost it overnight in the fridge before using.)

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Lightly sprinkle the counter with flour, place a disc of dough on it, and sprinkle both the disc and a rolling pin with more flour.  Roll out to a thickness of about 5mm.  Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go and place the biscuits a little apart on the baking sheets.

Bake for 8-12 minutes, by which time they will be lightly golden around the edges.  Cool on a rack and continue with the rest of the dough.  The cooking time depends on what size of biscuits you’ve cut.

Ice however you’d like.  I use glacé icing.

Simple glacé icing

300ml icing sugar, sieved
2 tablespoons boiling water
food colourings of your choice

Put the boiling water into a bowl and add the icing sugar, stirring well to make a thick paste.  Add a few drops more of water if you need to.  Colour however you’d like.