Pink-Lemon-Tree: Christmas cookies (eggless)

A plate of sugar cookies cut in fun shapes add joy to the table at any time of the year ! During the Christmas season it looks all the more special and appealing and I just have to make it year after year...Christmas just does not feel complete without making a batch of these to have at home and share with all the children who bring joy into my world of food ! You'd be surprised to know that despite making it each year,I do not own any cookie cutters in Christmasy shapes...they are very kindly given,to me on loan by two people who own an amazing array of shapes and do not mind me dipping in every now and then into their treasure chest of cookie cutters..thank you Priya and Divya !!!

I also had the privilege of baking cupcakes with these 2 lovely ladies along with another friend and firm foodie Aishwarya...for the children of St.Antony's school run by Mr.Rayan Rosario...he and his wife Brenda along with their family have been doing some amazing work in educating these children and we were so happy,thanks to the initiative of another friend JJ Chakola, to be able to contribute in our own small way for the Christmas celebrations held for these children on the 21st of Dec at the school premises.Many others played Santa on this day by donating toys and cash and I hope we will be able to bring smiles to these kids' faces year after year...if you would like to make a donation you can contact him at 98940 75500

While I have come across many sugar cookie recipes...this one by Rachel Allen is very simple and I like the fact that it is egg less and is very easy to make...another favourite is also Nigella Lawson's sugar cookie recipe ! This recipe has only butter ,sugar and flour,however I suggest using vanilla...simply love the aroma wafting out of my oven!!!

I usually do make Santa , Reindeer and Snowman cookies too...this year I made a very small batch and also not in time for the 25th...but then again who's complaining ?!!!? ;D

Recipe for sugar cookies

Ingredients

225 g butter (at room temp)

110g castor sugar

275g flour (please use any wholemeal flour of your choice)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C

Beat the butter until it is soft and light

Add the sugar and beat until it is fluffy

Add in the vanilla

Sift in the flour and fold in ,then mix with your hands to form a dough

Empty the dough onto a roll of cling film and fold the cling film over...flatten it to a disc and refrigerate for 30mts.

Make sure you have a clean surface for rolling,dust the surface with plain flour

Take a little at a time and roll out with a rolling pin...smear the rolling pin with flour to prevent the dough from sticking to it

Roll it out to about a quarter inch thickness

Dip the chosen cookie cutters into flour before cutting out the shapes

Cut out the shapes,it should lift off easily...transfer to the baking tray...if you have trouble with the shapes breaking,just re roll them a bit thicker and it should be fine :))

There is no need to grease the tray as there is enough butter content in the cookie dough !

Bake until golden...let cool before icing them.

Icing

5 Tbsp icing sugar (approx)

1 tsp of hot water

Mix it together...this being a very simple glace icing...you can make it as thick or runny as you like by just adjusting the ratio of sugar and water...I usually don't measure this and go by the consistency that I want !

Hint: Make sure you don't knead it too much before rolling .